


Oddballs

by mimirexx



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bickering, Boxer Eren Yeager, Business Trip, Child Isabel Magnolia, Construction Worker Levi, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Eren Yeager is a Little Shit, German Eren Yeager, Hange Zoë & Levi Are Best Friends, Homophobia, Levi gets angry easily, Multi, Past Levi/Petra Ral, Slow Burn, Turkish Eren Yeager, much bickering
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-11
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-01-29 00:44:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 30,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21401365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mimirexx/pseuds/mimirexx
Summary: Levi and Hanji are sent to Germany to take care of a bridge the Germans are too stupid to fix. Germans are just dumb, annoying and a bother- or so Levi thinks. Who knows how fast his mind would change with the help of a charming, young man named Eren Jaeger?
Relationships: Armin Arlert/Hange Zoë, Levi/Eren Yeager
Comments: 10
Kudos: 48





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I’m trying it with a multi chapter fic again. I will do my best to update as fast as I can but please be patient with me. 
> 
> Tags and all will be updated with each chapter. 
> 
> Also, don’t take everything I say about the Germans here to heart. Nothing of what I write is what I think of them- I’m German myself so duh. 
> 
> Anyway, here’s the first chapter of what I hope to finish one day!!

Planning, coordinating, budgeting and supervising- boring on the first glance but how else are giant bridges and complex constructions built? Someone had to do the ‘boring’ jobs to offer decent safety for the consumers, otherwise cities wouldn’t work the way they did today. They would just crash together like the tower of sugar cubes some people like to build. 

But once you got the hang of it, it’s not even that bad. Sure, it was a job where a shit ton amount of endless numbers were thrown against your head, and one thing calculated wrong could lead to many unfortunate events, but, even though, it could be a nice job. It had its pretty sides. You could communicate over computer most of the time, didn’t have to talk much during meetings, as long as you weren’t one of the higher ups, and didn’t have to intervene unless it was something important, just had to listen, take some notes, and could have a decent amount of free time if you worked at a brisk speed and finished ahead of the deadline. 

That way, Levi managed to get himself an extra free afternoon here and there and could do things he was more interested in than working. He enjoyed cooking and made sure to work out a healthy amount of time to keep himself fit while not overdoing it either. He did have a nice body, six pack and all, but he wasn’t a huge rock. 

Other than that, Levi also liked photography and spent as much time with his family as possible. They were his responsibility and the only ones he held close to his heart. 

And photography was simply astonishing. To capture a moment, to freeze a second of life forever, and being able to rewatch it over and over and over again. It was art; magical and unstoppable. Nobody could ever take it from him. Levi wasn’t a person to brag with it to begin with- which was a shame since he got a bunch of pretty awesome shots. So only like two or three people really knew of it, and he was more than fine with that. Gave him more time to really enjoy it, or whatever else he thought was the bright side of it. 

But back to work. 

It was a day like any other. The raven sat in his small office, wrote and tipped and wrote and tipped. Once he started work, he was super concentrated because he did not like to stay longer than needed. It made him grumpy- yes, more than he already was. 

Soon, there was a knock on his door which made him stop for a fracture of a second before just continuing. That way of knocking was already too familiar to him and he didn’t need to look up to know who it was. “Come in, Shit Glasses.”

Said door opened and a brunette with glasses stepped inside to approach the working male. “Whatcha doin’?” She asked in her playful voice. 

“Taking a shit.” Levi deadpanned, making the brunette laugh. 

“You do look pretty constipated, indeed.” The brunette hummed, “Anyway. Erwin wanna see you ‘cause he’s planned somethin’ nice for us!”

It made the raven glance up briefly, then he exhaled deeply and placed his pen down. “It better be important.” Knowing Erwin, it would be important- he wouldn’t interrupt their work for nothing. A little reluctantly, Levi pushed his chair back and stood up to follow the eager brunette out of his office. 

“I hope we finally get these new, luxury chairs Erwin told us about! My back isn’t taking that any longer!” She whined and stretched in a way too dramatic way. Levi could only roll his eyes. 

“Oh, or we get new coworkers! That’d be sooo cool! I’ve heard Erwin talk about new employees the other day!” 

As the impatient woman kept pondering, Levi stayed silent, giving a grunt or hum every once in a while to let Hanji know he heard her. He wasn’t much of a talker and everyone knew that. It didn’t seem to bother many people either, not that he cared much, to begin with. The less people spoke with him, the more peace he had. 

On the other hand, Levi was a great listener. Hanji regularly came for his advice, whenever she needed help or just had to get something off her chest. He had seen her in her broken-meltdown state and in her overly-joyful state. Even though she was a damned pain in the ass for him, Levi surely appreciated to have her as a friend- his best friend, actually, and one of the fews he had. He wouldn’t admit it, _ never _, but she pretty much was a big and important part of his family. Mess with her and Levi will personally dislocate your guts. 

A small walk and long talk, on Hanji’s part, later, the two of them made it to Erwin’s office. Knocking and walking in, Levi and Hanji soon were sitting on the opposite side of Erwin’s desk. 

The brunette was gazing expectantly at her superior while Levi kept his usual, unimpressed expression. Hanji had no idea how he could stay so calm when big news were awaiting them! She was so impatient and excited; she always was impatient and excited!

“Are the newbies here? Do we get upgrades for our offices? Is there a new project-?” Hanji questioned as soon as they took a seat, which Levi rolled his eyes at. 

“-Oi, Shit Glasses.” He scoffed mid-sentence, “If you don’t shut your mouth, we won’t know.”

“But-“

“Levi is right. How about you just let me explain?” The blond offered them both a kind smile and, eventually, Hanji gave in and nodded instead as Erwin began explaining;

“So. First of all, we have four new employees starting by Monday. They’ll get a briefing over the weekend. They’ve all got good skills and, judging from my experience, shouldn’t take too long to meet our standards to the fullest.”

As soon as Erwin finished that sentence, Levi could hear a high-pitched squeal coming from next to him. He grimaced and smacked the back of that weirdo’s head. “Fucking hell- want me to stuff that shitty mouth of yours or what?!”

Hanji whined, holding the back of her head in pain. “But Levi! Don’t hit me only ‘cause you’re _ jelly _ I’m gonna have new friends!” 

If there was one thing Hanji was good at, it was at making friends, no question. Everyone liked her and she just had that sympathy and tenacity that worked well on literally everyone, against their will. Even on Levi. 

“Tch.” The raven hit her again, rolling his eyes. “Jealous, my ass.”

Then, he faced Erwin again, who looked pretty amused by that little scene. It was the same every time. How annoying for Levi, and how entertaining for Erwin. 

“What else? Are we gonna have to train them?” He asked bluntly, forcing the topic to return to get done with it. 

To his surprise, Erwin shook his head and folded his arms over his chest. “No. You two won’t be here to train them.”

“...What?” Levi and Hanji asked in confused unison. 

“You two are my best workers, and I have big plans with you, so I want you to take care of a bigger and more important task this time.” The blond cleared his throats and continued while unfolding his arms and reaching for his laptop,

“We’ve got a job offer in Berlin. There’s this big bridge, the Oberbaumbrücke. Many construction companies have worked there already but something just seems wrong with it. The bridge is getting closed for weeks on a regular basis.”

“Wait.” Levi interrupted shortly, “Is that the bridge I’ve been working on these last months?”

“Oh! Wait, wait!” Hanji chirped, “I’ve been working on a bridge too! Is that the same bridge?”

“Exactly.” Erwin confirmed, “They’ve looked over your work and want us to take care of it. The bridge is currently closed for more than two months already and nothing is happening there,” The blond turned over his laptop, showing several pictures of the bridge he was speaking about. 

Levi and Hanji stared at the monitor for a moment in silence, letting their eyes travel over the structure of the bridge on the pictures. Seemed like Germans had absolutely no idea of constructing. No wonder they built that stupid wall right through their capital years ago. This bridge would be an easy job for them- as long as these Germans wouldn’t get in Levi’s way. 

“I want you to-“

“You want us to go there and fix that bridge.” Levi cut in rather quickly, his eyes locking with Erwin’s as the tall male gave a firm nod. As usual, Levi knew what was asked of him. 

“That’s right.”

“Just tell me when and I’ll be ready.” With that last sentence, Levi pushed his chair back and stood up. About to leave, Levi stopped upon hearing Erwin speaking again. 

“The flight is already booked,” Erwin closed the laptop and sat up straight, “You and Hanji will be leaving Saturday evening, arriving Sunday afternoon at Berlin Schönefeld Airport. You’ll get picked up, brought to your hotel, and have the remaining day off. Work will start on Monday.”

There were just about two days left to pack their stuff and get ready. No problem for Levi. He didn’t need a week to pack his stuff and didn’t have an issue with leaving so early. That was how his job worked, it wasn’t anything new. 

On the other hand, Hanji looked devastated, her jaw hanging open in shock, her eyes wide. Over ten years, and she still got so worked up whenever they got to leave so early. It was quite amusing to see her getting worked up about it- not so amusing for Hanji, though. 

“What?! So I only have one and a half day to say goodbye to Moblit and my babies?!” She exclaimed in utter shock. “Oh my God- I have to go now! Sorry!”

The brunette shot up and exited the room with incredible speed, not even giving Erwin the chance to say anything more. She was gone and Levi and Erwin were the only ones left in the office. 

“...Well, I don’t think I have to explain much about your tasks there, do I? You’ll get the situation explained in Berlin and, after that, you’ll be in lead. You decide what gets done and how. I trust your decisions, Levi.”

Levi, still standing, glanced at the blond from over his shoulder, his eyes narrowed. “Of course.” Simple and short; that’s how Levi was. There wasn’t much more that needed to be said about that matter anymore, so it was left at that. 

“You can take today and tomorrow off to get your stuff together. I’ll email you everything you need to know.” The blond smiled up at Levi who gave another short nod and left the room afterwards, heading for his office to gather his stuff. 

Berlin was almost on the other side of the globe, that would be a long flight. Exhausting. 

Getting everything he was working on these past months, Levi neatly put it all in his working bag. He took his laptop as well and, after checking another time to make sure he hadn’t forgotten anything, Levi made his way out of the building. He wasn’t in a hurry, different from Hanji who already was gone. There was still plenty of time left, it was only Thursday. 

So, Levi got into his car and drove home to drop off his things and got out again soon after, driving somewhere else. Arriving at a very familiar place, Levi parked the car in the driveway and made his way over to the door. After he rang the bell, he could hear many quick steps coming from inside, accompanied by sweet giggles and laughs. That sound... always warmed his heart. 

The door was opened and Levi was greeted by a small girl, carrying the biggest smile ever. She gasped and quickly lunged at Levi who caught her in his arms just as quick. 

“Daddy! Daddy‘s back!” The little one squealed gleefully, “Mommy! Mommy, ‘tis daddy!” 

“Isabel!” Her mother scolded, “How many times do I have to tell you to not open the door on your own? What if it was a bad person?”

“But mommy-“

“Your mother is right, pumpkin. Don’t open the door on your own.” Levi spoke in a serious, yet gentle tone. He wanted her to understand it wasn’t right but also didn’t want her to think he was angry with her. Because he was not. 

“‘Kay. ‘M sorry..” The girl mumbled before wrapping her arms around her father’s neck for hugs and cuddles, which Levi gladly provided. He kissed her cheek softly while holding her up and looked over at the short woman by his side. 

“Come in. Auro is still working.” The ginger smiled and lead Levi inside who walked over to take a seat on the couch with his girl on his lap. She looked more than content with being carried around and hugged by her father and snuggled into his warm embrace. It truly was a sight to cherish. 

“I’m gonna make some tea.” Petra announced and disappeared in the kitchen. “How come you’re not at work, by the way? Another trip?”

“Yeah. Erwin gave me the rest of the day off to get my stuff together. I’m leaving on Saturday.” He called back to her before looking down at the girl on his lap and stroking her head gently. “Wanted to see Isabel before I left.“ Levi added in his warm, fatherly voice. The one only reserved for his little Isabel. 

“Really? Where are you going this time? Cancún? Québec?”

“Berlin.” The raven answered shortly, “They’ve got trouble with a bridge there. Hanji and me will go and take care of it.”

“Oh.” The ginger haired woman sounded in surprise, coming back to the living room with a tray in her hands. “That far, really? I wouldn’t have guessed it.” She let out a chuckle. 

Petra was a very charming woman. She was a good-hearted soul and loving mother with a huge heart. Selfless, caring, compassionate. Gorgeous, too. She was the perfect wife in every way, but, for some reason, it wouldn’t work between them. They’ve been together for a couple of years, got married, got a child, then got divorced. It was a very peaceful breakup, though, hence why they were still good friends now. Maybe they both realized that they, unfortunately, just weren’t made for each other. 

Petra found love again, whereas Levi hadn’t been that lucky. Not that he was excessively searching for someone to fall in love with. Perhaps relationships just weren’t something for him in general. He didn’t feel lonely either since he had his wonderful daughter and was more than content to spend his life raising her and seeing her grow up. His friends gave him more than enough attention and affection too, so he was happy with the current state he found himself in. However, that didn’t mean his friends and family were happy with it. 

“I thought I could take her with me and drop her off on Saturday morning again, if that’s okay with you. Not sure how long we will need to stay there, that bridge looks pretty fucked up.” He shrugged lightly, watching as Petra poured them both a cup of the hot, boiling tea. The aroma spread in the air in soft, little puffs of steam, making Levi exhale calmly. How relaxing. 

The short woman reached for her cup of tea and held it in both of her hands. Thinking one or two moments about it, she soon smiled again. Isabel looked so happy to see her father and she definitely would love to spend some extra time with him. “Of course,” A smile, warm and assuring, “As long as Isabel wants to, you can take her with you.”

“Well,” The raven moved his gaze down to the girl in his arms, “Pumpkin, would you like coming with m-?”

Barely finishing his sentence, Isabel already began squealing and nodding. “Yes! Wanna come! Wanna come!” She chirped joyfully, bouncing on her father’s lap in sheer glee. And at that sight, not even Levi could stop himself from smiling. 

Isabel was such a lively, adorable, little girl. Sometimes, he asked himself how he could even have the luck to have such an amazing daughter. He was the complete opposite, cold and stoic, but he guessed she got that from her mother. Petra was very similar, even if not to that extent. Well, Isabel was still a child, she ought to be shrill and lively and her parents couldn’t complain about it. They were actually thankful for it- that little girl brought a smile to their lips each second of each day. 

“Well, then. Let’s go and get your stuff.” The raven announced while getting up, huffing softly, “Look how big you already got. I can barely lift you up anymore!” He said playfully while poking her sides, making Isabel giggle. 

“Maybe you’re just getting _ old _,” Petra commented from behind with a little evil grin. 

In response, Levi whipped over and shot her a glare. But Petra knew him well enough to know this was just the way he was when being playful. And Levi knew her well enough to know she was not serious. They were just teasing each other. Wasn’t the first time. 

The ginger broke the small silence with a laugh and Levi’s face relaxed again. Rolling his eyes, he turned away and began walking upstairs. “Let’s get your stuff.” 

Isabel had a huge room upstairs with so many toys and a huge closet. Her parents made sure she wouldn’t miss anything, made sure she had everything she needed and enough to play with. They wanted her to have the best life possible. The walls were a girly pink with butterflies all over, a few accents set with glitter. It wasn’t too much but one could easily see that was the bedroom of a very joyful, little girl. 

It took the two a couple of minutes. While Levi was getting her clothes and important stuff like her toothbrush and clean undergarments, Isabel was choosing which toys she wanted to take with her. Needless to mention, she had her favorite plushie, a fluffy brown bunny, and a Barbie doll. Though, Isabel also got some toy cars and a bunch of marbles she liked to play with. They were all so colorful and looked very nice in the light. Once she thought she had enough toys stuffed into her bag, and after Levi made sure her pajamas and clothes fit inside as well, the duo was walking downstairs again. 

“Mommy! Mommy!” The small redhead skipped over to her mother quickly and threw her arms around her legs for a hug. Petra, who stopped doing the dishes to turn around, crouched down to return her daughter’s hug properly. 

“Are you already leaving, sweetheart?” She asked softly which Isabel nodded at and squeezed her mother happily. “Mhm!” Was the only answer coming from the four year old. She wasn’t sad to be leaving her mother for a few days- since she was seeing her father so irregularly, she was so happy whenever she got to spend some more time with him. Obviously, Levi felt the same. Petra was a little sad that she wouldn’t get to see her daughter for a few days, but since Levi wouldn’t see her for weeks or months sometimes, it was more than fair. 

They would get to see each other again soon enough. 

“Alright. Take care of your daddy, and have lots of fun together, hm?” Pressing a long kiss on the girl’s hair, Isabel ended up nodding again and rushed over to fetch her shoes. While she did, Levi looked at Petra who was just smiling at him. Isabel was happy which made everyone else happy too. “I’ll see you on Saturday, then.” Levi finally said, reaching up to ruffle Petra’s strawberry-blonde hair, messing it up. 

Giggling and fixing her hair again, the young woman stepped closer to pull Levi into a short hug; her way of saying goodbye. Once they parted, Levi was putting on his shoes as well and opened the front door. “See you. And use that to get some couple time with Auro.” 

That comment made a small blush creep onto Petra’s cheeks, though, she wasn’t uncomfortable with Levi saying that. “Maybe you get to have some _decent _time in Germany too.” Her way of emphasizing that sentence was... weird. The wink she gave afterwards... even weirder. Levi was confusedly staring at that woman for a couple of seconds in silence before deciding it was not worth the time and leaving with his daughter. 

But Levi must’ve been pretty oblivious if he did not get what she was trying to tell him. Actually, it kind of was cute since Levi always had been like that. It wasn’t stupidity, Petra believed he just wasn’t used to such things, more so since she knew she was his first and only relationship ever, plus he wasn’t exactly a social person. That was why she wanted him to find someone who accepted him as the great man he was. Levi deserved to be loved, to be genuinely and deeply loved by someone. Someone had to see through the shell he built around himself. Maybe American women just weren’t his type and he would find liking in a German woman while being there? She hoped so. 

Little did she know, Levi actually despised the Germans greatly. Why? 

That, only Levi knew.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Levi and Hanji make it to Germany and meet new friends. Armin is innocent but Eren turns out to be a real pain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It took so long to get this chapter written because I had some up and downs. It’s longer though, hope that makes up for it.

Levi and Isabel got to spend some really fun and awesome days together. They’ve been to the park, to Isabel’s favorite place to eat, cuddled, laughed, had fun. It was as if, for these few days, it was only Levi and Isabel. Isabel and Levi. They enjoyed these days very much and, honestly, Levi needed that before leaving. His little girl always lifted up his mood and made him forget about the work that was slowly creeping its way closer, kept him calm until then. 

In a blink of an eye, it already was Saturday morning. Levi decided to sleep in, cradling his sleeping daughter in his arms right by his side. His cheek was rested on top of her head while her little fist clung to his shirt. The red hair was an absolute mess, here and there and everywhere. Although Levi always brushed and tied her hair the night before, Isabel somehow still managed to cause such a mess and nobody knew how. 

Small, soft snores were coming from the kid- not only her, actually. Her father was definitely snoring too. How precious. A sight to take in and cherish since it was not every day one got to experience a moment of so much meaning. 

When the morning slowly began nearing noon, time ticking by like it’s nothing, the raven stirred and was roughly woken by his ringing phone- his loudly ringing phone. 

Uh oh. 

Reaching under his pillow, he swiped over the touchscreen of his phone to stop that loud noise and answer whoever decided to call him. And out of all the people in the whole world who could’ve called him, it had to be Hanji. 

“Shortyy!! Question! Should I take my green or yellow snow overall?” 

“...What?” Half-asleep and still with a hoarse voice, Levi rubbed his eyes. The hell was she even talking about? Snow? What did she need an overall for? And why on earth was she asking him?

“Still sleeping?” The woman chuckled before adding, “Look out of the window! I definitely need an overall or else I’ll freeze my ass off- You know what? I’ll just take them both! Anyway, see you later, dear!”

Before Levi even had a chance to comprehend what the hell that weirdo was talking about, his gaze shifted over to the window of his room. Blinking away his tiredness, he noticed that his vision wasn’t blurry, but that it had begun snowing outside. Judging from the amount of snow already laying on the ground, it must’ve had been snowing all night. He took in the sight for a few moments in silence, watching as hundreds of thousands of tiny, little snowflakes were dancing in the wind, knocking at his window, falling to the ground. It was beautiful. 

Suddenly, he heard a gasp coming from beside him and his gaze lowered to his daughter, who was suddenly wide awake and gawking at the window, awestruck. “Woah...” A mere whisper under her breath, her eyes gleaming and sparkling. Yeah, Isabel loved the snow a lot. And Levi loved seeing her reaction even more. To see his daughter watching something that amazed her so greatly was something he could never get enough of. 

That was, at least, until he caught a glimpse at the clock and sighed softly. It was already past 11 am. If they wouldn’t hurry, he’d be late for his flight. The way to the airport already took so long, not to forget the time they needed until actually making it into the plane. It always was such a hassle at airports. 

“C’mon, pumpkin. Go brush your teeth and get dressed.” Levi mumbled, pressing a loving kiss to her head and gently smoothing out her hair. 

“But wanna play in snoo!” Isabel exclaimed and shot her father her famous puppy eyes look. And Levi couldn’t resist- he never could, even if he wanted to. That little girl was his only weakness.

“I know, that’s why you should get ready real quick. The faster you are, the sooner you can play in the snow until we’re leaving.” 

With a quick and happy “Yahoo!!”, Isabel literally leaped out of the bed and hurried over to the bathroom. She loved the snow- snow men, snow angels, snowball fights. It was all so fun! How could anyone not like the snow?!

Anyway. Levi got out of bed to prepare everything. Packing Isabel’s things back into her bag, tidying up the place, checking if he didn’t forget anything, and the little bundle of joy already came bouncing back. She looked so excited. 

“Daddy! C’mon!” 

“Not like that.” Levi said calmly as he took care of her hair and clothes, making sure she would be warm enough and not look like she just stuck her finger into the socket. With a hat, scarf and mittens, Levi finally let her run to the door to put on her shoes while he himself quickly got ready too. Other than Isabel, Levi barely took a few minutes to be dressed and ready and brought Isabel’s, as well as his own bag and suitcase, over to the door. 

Isabel was already done, so Levi opened the door to let her go out earlier and stomp through the snow while he carried the bags to his car. It wasn’t parked anywhere far away, so Levi was quick to throw everything onto the backseats and turn around to look for his daughter who was happily throwing snow into the air, giggling and laughing. 

“Isabel, come on, let’s go.” He told her after a few moments of watching her having fun. 

“But, daddy!” The girl complained with a pout, snow laying on her head and her clothes. She looked funny like that. “Wanna play, wanna play!” 

“Your mother will take you out to play later again. We need to go now or I’ll be late.” Opening the front door of his car, he motioned for Isabel to get inside. “Do you want the plane to leave without me?”

Still pouting, the redhead stomped her way through the snow and into the car a little reluctantly. She did not want to cause trouble for her father and didn’t want to disobey, but she still would’ve loved to play some more. Isabel was raised well, she listened to what was told. Most of the time without complaining, but complaining was part of being a child so it wasn’t such a big deal as long as, in the end, Isabel did listen. 

Now that they were in the car, Levi finally drove over to Petra’s house, checking the time every once in a while. The streets were mostly free thanks to all the snow, so Levi didn’t feel the urge to rush. So far, it was going quite smoothly. 

Arriving at Petra’s house and parking the car in a free lot, Levi and Isabel got out. While Levi grabbed their bags, Isabel hurried over to the door and rang once, then twice, then yet another time. Mid-ringing, the door was opened by a man with light hair and brown eyes. He looked older than Levi although, in fact, Levi was the older one. Quite fortunate how Levi kept his youthful face. 

“Uro! Where’s mommy?” The little girl questioned and suddenly was lifted and cuddled by her mother’s boyfriend. She laughed and hugged him in return, gasping when she saw her mother approaching. 

“There’s the little monster breaking my bell!” Petra exclaimed and tackled the other two into a hug, smooching her daughter’s cheek and hugging her close. Even if she enjoyed her time with Auro, she still missed Isabel dearly. Home wasn’t home without her daughter running around inside. It was too quiet. 

“Mommy!!” Isabel smiled from ear to ear, bright and happy and joyful. Needless to say, she, too, missed her mother. The girl wrapped her arms and legs around her like a monkey, her head rested on her shoulder as Petra gave her a few kisses on the head. 

“Did you have much fun with daddy? Hm? Did you play lots?” The ginger haired chuckled and soon met Levi’s gaze, who by that time stood at their doorway, his stuff by his side. 

“We didn’t get to eat breakfast because woke up a little too late.” The man patted her head and Petra just smiled in acknowledgment. 

“That’s no problem. I’ll cook her something quickly. Would you like to eat too?”

“No,” Levi declined rather quickly, “I’m fine. The taxi should be here any minute anyway.”

Levi wasn’t much of a breakfast person. Lunch and dinner was enough for him, together with a cup of tea in the morning. Levi found breakfast was overrated, but who even understood that man to begin with. 

Petra answered with a soft “alright” and glanced at Auro who understood her silent demand and walked inside to take care of the food.

The raven soon reached into his pocket and pulled out two sets of keys. One was for his car, the other one for his apartment. The main door, his apartment door, the mailbox, whatever else had a keyhole in his home. He gave both to Petra, like always trusting her with it. She never once disappointed him by losing the keys or turning his home into a mess- other than Hanji- so he always gave them to her before he left and picked them up again when he came back from a trip. They were both fine with that. 

It didn’t take long until there was a car driving up Petra’s driveway and honking, so Levi turned around to look at the driver, to let him know he saw him. Then Levi turned back to Petra and Isabel and leaned closer to press a long kiss on his daughter’s cheek. 

“Love you, pumpkin. Be nice to your mother. I’ll call you whenever I get time, deal?” He spoke, gently rubbing her hair before looking up at Petra. “Take care. I’ll keep you updated.” As he said that, he ruffled her short hair, making Petra giggle and smile at him. 

“I sure hope so. Let me know once you arrive.”

With a short nod and one last glance at his daughter, who looked sad to see her father leaving, Levi lifted his bag and suitcase and brought them over to the car, dropping them into the trunk before opening the door and getting inside. Obviously, Levi wasn’t the person who took hours to say goodbye. He kept it short always. He was a busy man and didn’t have time to stay in the same spot for so long. They already were in a hurry all the time as it was. 

Petra was used to it, Isabel seemed to get used to it too, so it was fine. It wasn’t that it was easy for Levi to leave, that look in Isabel’s eyes broke his heart, but he had to do what had to be done. That was part of his work and it was important he got enough money to offer his little girl the best future he could manage. 

As the car took off, Levi sighed deeply and ran a hand through his hair before getting out his phone and calling Hanji. It dialed a few times before the call was answered. 

“Shit Glasses, I’m on my way. You better be ready or I’m leaving without you.” He spoke as the brunet answered her phone. It sounded like she was still rummaging and busy with packing. 

“Ah- Yeah, yeah. I’m pretty much done!” She chanted while zipping up her suitcase. “Just gotta grab my scarf and hat!”

“Good. Ten minutes.” The raven then hung up the phone and leaned his head back, looking out of the window. The way the snow was whipping and swaying with the wind was really calming to watch. Secretly and deep inside, Levi liked the snow just as much as Isabel did. 

As the time passed like that, the car soon stopped at the address Levi gave where Hanji was already standing at the sidewalk with two huge suitcases and one backpack. When the car stopped, Hanji brought her stuff over to throw it into the trunk and stood at the door of the car afterwards. 

“I’ll miss you a lot, Moblit!” She exclaimed dramatically, as if she would be gone forever. Maybe forever was a little exaggerated, but they were going to be gone for a while indeed. “I’ll send you many pics, don’t worry! I bet Germany is super beautiful!” She told her friend with excitement dripping from her voice. 

“Oi, Shit Glasses! Hurry up!” Levi called out impatiently. Knowing Hanji, she would stay there for hours to say goodbye. What a waste of time. 

Pouting momentarily, Hanji soon got into the car next to Levi and smiled at him. “Wouldn’t have expected it to be snowing today!” 

“The hell are you even-?” He shook his head before even finishing his question and looked over at the driver. “To the airport.” He said instead. 

It was often that Hanji was wearing... weird stuff. That was just the first day of snow and she already wore an overall- it looked like a ski-overall or something. Bright yellow. Definitely not the most beautiful thing to wear, but it sure as hell was cozy and kept everything warm. Plus, Hanji didn’t care if she looked weird or funny with it. She didn’t care if people thought she was crazy because, as long as she was comfortable, who the hell had the right to tell her anything? Not to mention that she, in fact, was crazy. 

Levi wasn’t embarrassed to walk around with her like that either. Skirt, pants or overall- Hanji wore what she wanted to wear, simple as that. There were days she wore suits, days she wore skirts and days she wore crazy things she bought for whatever reason. No matter what she wore, she was always the same Hanji. 

Annoying, crazy, unique. That’s what people loved her for. 

“I’ve read a lot about Germany! Can’t wait to finally be there!” The brunette was so thrilled and eager. A new country meant new possibilities and new friends! She already had friends all over America and Canada, some in the UK as well, but Germany was another level. She heard people were so different there and couldn’t wait to find out. 

On the contrary, Levi wasn’t nearly as excited as Hanji was. Truth be told, he was a little pissed it had to be Germany. Out of all the other 194 countries in the world which could have a damaged bridge... Whatever. He’d survive it. They’d go there, get their job done quickly, and come back. Nothing more, nothing less. 

Hanji and Levi eventually made it to the airport where it took them literal hours to get rid of their suitcases, get checked up and sent to their terminal. And even more waiting. The plane had to be ready for their departure. While they sat there, Hanji was talking his ear off. She just wouldn’t stop ranting about stuff she read and heard about Germany, how she wanted to learn that new language and meet people and eat Bratwurst. She was keen to finally step a foot onto German land. 

Contradicting Hanji’s spirit, Levi was honestly not interested what attractions Germany had or how they make the best food, not in the slightest (beside the fact that he thought the complete opposite), but he didn’t want to turn down Hanji’s mood. He didn’t want to take away her excitement, so Levi patiently listened to her rambling and let her know he was listening by humming and reacting with short, little phrases. At least she was happy, that was fine. 

The time at the airport was drawn out so much and was robbing Levi of all his power. It wasn’t only sitting and waiting for the time to pass, that would’ve been nice. It was rather the people around him who were giving him a headache. Yelling people on the telephone, people yelling at each other, people dealing with their young, annoying, loud children, or just people continuously making sounds which drew Levi crazy. 

Naturally, he was a very calm and collected person and wouldn’t let things like these get the best of him, more so since he should’ve been used to all that by now. On the other hand, Levi was extra pissed for this very flight. He could not control the way he felt, so he was just breathing through it; calm, slow, deep. They would arrive eventually, he only had to stay patient and get himself through that hassle. It was such a long flight too...

Eleven, or maybe twelve, draining hours later, the plane finally landed. It bumped a few times, which made Levi feel a little nauseous, then was slowly losing speed. Sighing deeply, Levi rubbed his temples tiredly. The flight made him so worn out and tired that he just wanted to fall into a bed and finally get some sleep. Hanji got a couple of hours of sleep but there was no way Levi would let himself fall asleep on a plane. 

One, it was a pain- literally. His back would ache and his head hurt only more. Two, just sitting in that chair for hours, and not even wanting to imagine how many people before him sat in that chair, gave him chills. Who knew how well these chairs were cleaned? Before he sat down, he tried to clean it up with some wipes but that was far from enough. Levi was so relieved they finally arrived and it was more than obvious on his face. 

“We’re there! We’re there!” Hanji sang gleefully. At least one person who was happy. She didn’t mind that it took so long- she got to chat with the person sitting next to her, who she got along with really well, and got a good amount of sleep to feel refreshed and energized. Definitely, Hanji was the only person feeling this way after such a long journey. That weirdo. 

The plane eventually stopped and everyone got up to grab their handbags and marsh out of the big machine. Some people got shoved and pushed around thanks to the big number of passengers, however, everyone made it out and got to get their suitcases and whatever else was too big to count as a handbag. 

Even though there wasn’t very much that needed to be done afterwards, it still took Levi and Hanji a good hour to make it out of the airport. And when they finally made it into the open, Levi inhaled and exhaled deeply. He really needed some fresh air after feeling like suffocating for hours. 

“Finally...” The raven grumbled to himself tiredly. What time was it? He had no idea. It was getting dark before they left, now it was getting dark again. These damned time zones were getting the best of him. 

“Levi! Can you believe this?! We’re in Germany! That’s so cool!” Hanji screeched and looked around herself curiously, as if she was trying to explore their surroundings. Levi couldn’t see anything interesting around them- they were at the airport, the most boring place in the world. There was nothing interesting about it and not much around it either, as far as he could see. 

Deciding to not waste much time on it, Levi waved a taxi over and glanced back at Hanji shortly to tell her to follow him. They got their stuff into the trunk before taking a seat on the back seats where Levi got out his phone to look for the address of the hotel. The driver gave a nod, then their second journey started. Levi used that to check his phone for any important messages. 

_ Petra (2) _

_ Did you already arrive? How was the flight?  _

_ Let me know once you get a free minute.  _

_ Eyebrows (5) _

_ I hope your flight didn’t have any delays.  _

_ I forwarded a mail the head of the corporation in Germany sent me regarding your first meeting on Monday. _

_ Wish you both a nice stay! _

_ Heads up, and keep me updated.  _

_ PS: Be like a proton- stay positive! ;) _

_ Shitty Glasses (13) _

_ «Picture» _

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Apart from Petra, there was nothing important or urgent. Erwin could wait (Levi wasn’t very amused by his messages anyway) and he would just answer Petra once they arrived at the hotel. Hanji’s messages were just pictures she took of them in the plane, before and after the flight, as well as right now in the taxi, just as he was going through his phone. 

“C’mon, now look into the camera at least once!” Just then Levi realized Hanji was talking to him. He had completely faded her out until that moment where he remembered she was right by his side- and even had her arm around him. 

While Hanji was taking selfies of them with no end, doing different poses and expressions with her face, Levi was boredly staring into the camera as he waited for her to get done with it. It wasn’t the first time, and most definitely wouldn’t be the last time either. But Levi was used to it, so he let her take all the pictures she wanted and patiently waited for Hanji to be satisfied with it. She sent him her ‘best’ shots so Levi would have them on his phone as well and stopped once she had enough. When she did, Levi was the one looking satisfied. Finally, that weirdo was done, now he could lean back and try to relax a little. 

But for some reason, the car wasn’t exactly moving. 

“Oi,” Levi glanced at the driver from the mirror, brows knitted together, “Why the hell aren’t we driving? What’s up there?”

“Sorry,” The man spoke with his heavy accent, “One lane is closed and at the end of the road is a, uh.. construction-thing.” He was struggling a little with his words. “It will take a little longer.”

Great. Just great. Now they were stuck in a jam. How much better could this day get? Levi was so pissed. “No wonder if you can’t build your fucking streets right. Dumbasses everywhere.” He grumbled, mostly to himself. 

Though, the driver heard what Levi said and shot him a glare. “Excuse me?”

“Ah- I’m sorry but don’t listen to him. The flight was really long, my friend here is just a little tired.” Hanji interrupted with a kind smile. 

Levi rolled his eyes. “Tired is an understatement.”

“Please don’t mind him,” Hanji added quickly and patted Levi’s shoulder, as if telling him to shut up. 

The man behind the wheel narrowed his eyes before just turning his gaze back to the streets. He muttered something under his breath, in German, and Levi heard him clearly. The raven tensed and clenched his fist. That asshole said something about him without a doubt, Levi could see that! He wanted to smash his face into dozens of pieces, ram it into the steering wheel until the blood and injuries over his face made it impossible to recognize him. Punch his stomach until he would begin puking out his guts. But he forced himself to keep his hands down when he could feel Hanji’s hand on his fist and see her warning look. 

Deep breaths, calm. Easy. He just had to ignore that fat asshole until they made it to the hotel. After that, he never had to see him again which was a great thing, for each side. Less complicated, less stressful.  _ Ugh _ . 

Levi relaxed his fists again and clicked his tongue in annoyance. These damned Germans were going to get the best of him. No manners, no knowledge of how to treat their clients, and not even knowing how to drive properly. This country was a wreck and these people were going down with it. 

Levi just hoped and prayed he didn’t have to stay there for too long. The air in the car was so stuffy and it smelled like that man- a mixture of sweat and... meat? Disgusting. It definitely was a long while since he last took a bath. That guy looked so unhygienic. Even though it was freezing cold outside, Levi opened a window. He’d end up suffocating otherwise. 

“What’s making you so angry, shorty? You’ve dealt with worse guys. C’mon, calm breaths.” Hanji commented as she scooted closer and sat on the middle chair, to make it easier to talk but also because she wanted to throw her arm around Levi. Though, the raven only looked more annoyed and shoved her to the other side of the car again, ensuring there was enough space between them. 

“Nothing. I’m not angry.” Levi spat, which was a complete lie. “I just want to get done with this. Could you not be a pain in my ass for, like, ten minutes?”

Silently, Hanji nodded and only reached out to place her hand on top of Levi’s in her silent way of letting him know she was there and that it was alright. Not that Levi needed that assurance, but he didn’t hold her back from doing so either. As long as the rest of the ride wasn’t stressful. The car was finally silent and Levi closed his eyes, trying to relax at least a little. 

About an hour later, the car pulled up to a huge building and stopped right at its door. Without saying much, Levi got out and walked to the back of the car to get their suitcases, not wanting the driver to touch them. Hanji was paying the man and came out of the car soon after, looking around themselves. 

“Look at that! There’s the Berlin Wall! Right next to our hotel! How cool’s that?!” The brunette exclaimed in awe, “And the view is lovely! Erwin chose a great hotel, like always!”

“We haven’t seen it from the inside yet,” Levi cut in during Hanji’s umpteenth photo session this day, rather unfazed, “Get your ass in there already.” 

Taking a few more pictures, Hanji put her phone away and grabbed her suitcases to follow Levi into the hotel. They walked over to the reception where a man with a warm smile greeted them. 

“Guten Abend. Willkommen im Hampton Hotel.”

Levi gazed up at that man for a moment in silence before wordlessly getting out his wallet and placing his ID-card onto the counter. “We have a room booked on my name.”

“Of course.” The young man nodded and took the ID-card to check his computer for the booked room while Hanji was looking around themselves excitedly. “Looks pretty here.” She mused happily but Levi just ignored her. 

“Ah, here it is.” The man spoke after a few short moments and handed Levi his card again as he turned around to grab the keys and placed them onto the counter in front of him. “Your room is in the seventh floor. The elevator is on my left. When you go out of the elevator, your room is the third one on the right.”

“Yeah.” Was Levi’s short answer as he took the keys and turned to leave- wouldn’t there have been the last comment that man made. 

“I wish you and your wife a good stay. I hope we can make your stay as comfortable as possible.” 

Hanji bursted out laughing hysterically, holding her stomach and wiping away a tear. “His  _ wife _ ! HAHAHA!”

The raven’s brow twitched annoyedly and he clenched the keys in his hand. “I’d rather be married to a monkey.” He growled before shooting Hanji a glare, “Cut it. Move your ass.” Making sure he glared at the guy behind the counter as well, Levi walked over to the elevator and pushed the button. The young man apologized a few times for his mistake while Hanji was still giggling and laughing, even after they made it in front of their room. 

“Will you stop it now? You’re overdoing it.” The raven stated, fed up with the whole deal. 

“S-sorry! It’s just that- imagine us being married! Wouldn’t that be hilarious?!”

“That’d mean you’d be more of a pain in the ass than you already are. And that would be too much.” The door of their room opened and the two stepped inside. “Plus,” Levi added, taking a look around, “I’m not attracted to you.”

“I know. You’re attracted to monkeys!” Hanji chuckled and let herself fall onto one of the two beds, stretching her whole body. “Don’t worry, I’m gonna find the perfect monkey for you. Just leave it to me.” The woman gave him a thumbs up and a wink. 

“If I’ll leave it to you, I can be sure I’ll stay alone forever.” Not that it was something bad in Levi’s opinion. He preferred staying alone, it gave him a better control of his life- at least he thought so. Hanji, for example, had a completely different view on it. She wanted Levi to fall in love and live his life with the perfect wife by his side. 

As the room fell into silence, Levi was inspecting everything, searching for dust or dirt somewhere in the room, checking the mattress and sheets for stains or whatever could be there. There were hotels he was at that were so dirty he had to leave the same day, where the employees didn’t really care about keeping the rooms clean. But most of the time, the hotels were clean and acceptable, just like this time. 

“Hey, Levi?” Hanji hummed softly, flicking her eyes over to the window. “Let’s get some food, I’m starving.”

The short male took a seat on the edge of the second bed and stared at Hanji. “Sure, whatever. Choose something that’s not that far away, at least.”

Nodding quickly and turning onto her stomach, Hanji got out her phone and googled restaurants near them. Thank God Google was a thing. It didn’t take her long and Hanji already chirped up again. “Look! They’ve got a  _ Five Guys _ right around the corner! Can we go there? It’s only a minute away!”

Fast food didn’t even sound that bad, actually. They could get eating done quickly and could go back to their room afterwards. It wasn’t very late yet but Levi was so exhausted and done that he really only wanted to sleep soon. “Yeah, let’s go. Can’t be that bad there.” It was the same brand so there wasn’t much the Germans could do wrong with cooking food, was there? It was worth a try. 

Excitedly, Hanji jumped out of bed and grabbed Levi’s hand to drag him out of the hotel. Seemed like Hanji was even hungrier than Levi had thought because just a few moments later, they were already inside the fast food restaurant. 

And Hanji was right, it was just around the corner. The building of their hotel was visible from where he was standing and Levi also saw there was a really big area between the hotel and several restaurants at the sides, even a cinema. The middle was empty with a bunch of pillars forming a rectangle where advertisements were played. On one side was the street, on the other something that was quite huge. An arena? That’s why that place was so huge. 

And full of people. Annoying brats all around him. Tch. 

“So, what do you wanna have?” The brunette asked which made Levi finally look up at the menu on the top. It confused him to see the whole menu was in English- better for them. It surely wouldn’t hurt the Germans to learn some English. English wasn’t the world language for no reason. 

“Just a cheeseburger.” Levi stated and looked up at Hanji. “You order, I’m sick of these brats pushing past us. No fucking manners.” As he flicked his wrist, Levi walked over to an empty table and took a seat there. He was alone and all that fat on the table didn’t give him any peace. Fat on the table wasn’t something he couldn’t expect, though. 

Frowning deeply, Levi grabbed a napkin and took the little bottle of disinfectant he always kept in his pocket- for moments like these. He sprayed a good amount on the table and then began cleaning the surface. The teens and younger adults gave him weird looks, some mumbled to each other, but Levi honestly didn’t care. It wasn’t that hard of a job to clean a table. But that wasn’t anything surprising in a fast food restaurant. Everything was greasy there. 

A couple of minutes later, Hanji came back and sat down across from Levi, who managed to clean up the table as good as he could and was now staring at Hanji. 

“The people here are actually really nice! Look, these two boys over there let me order before them and the waitress is such a cutie!” She pointed out and smiled widely. Even though Levi couldn’t agree with Hanji at all, he left it uncommented and gave a little shrug before looking out of the window while Hanji kept rambling. 

How big the damage on the bridge would be? How long they’d need to get it fixed? Levi hoped it won’t take too long. He kind of missed Isabel already... his precious, little girl. He began zoning out. 

Suddenly, someone took a seat next to him and Levi raised his brows in surprise. Looking over, he saw there were the two boys who let Hanji order first sitting at their table with them. Next to  _ him _ . At first, Levi only stared but, soon enough, his stare turned into a glare. “The hell are you doing here? There are plenty free tables.” He snapped furiously, whipping his head to Hanji when she answered for them. 

“They are our new friends now! Be kind to them. These are Armin and Eren. Armin, Eren, this is-”

“Like hell. I’m not planning to befriend kids, Shit Glasses.” The man growled, his expression dark. 

“W-we really don’t wanna bother you or anything.” One of the boys, the blond one, spoke, a faint blush of nervousness on his cheeks, and rubbed the back of his neck. “We will just-“ When he stood up, Hanji quickly pulled him back down and hugged the boy’s arm with both hands to keep him there, making the heat on his face even more apparent. 

“Nope, you’re not bothering at all. Just ignore Levi, he’s not good at being nice. And he’s never in a good mood, so you just need to get used to the constant glares and scolding.” Hanji chuckled before looking at Levi with a smile, “But he can actually be such a softie. Especially when he’s with-“

“Enough.” Levi interrupted harshly, snarling, “If you wanna tell your life story and be friends with some brats, fine. But leave me the fuck out of it.”

“Okay, okay!” Hanji playfully rose her hands up in surrender before looking over at the boys and grinning. “So, tell me about yourself! Oh- better idea! Let’s make it a game! Everyone says one thing about themselves.” 

Oh God, what did Levi do to deserve this? He was surrounded by morons, absolute morons. Hanji, he could deal with. But why did she have to get these kids over to their table, knowing fully well that Levi hated being with strangers? He thought he could just eat quickly and get back to bed but it seemed like this would take longer than expected. And he was so tired. 

“Sounds good. I’ll start.” The brunet boy spoke next, tucking a loose strand of hair behind his ear. This kid was huge, one could already tell from him just sitting. His hair was long and tied up in a messy bun with a few shorter strands covering his forehead. He looked like a woman. A huge, buff, bearded woman. These Germans were weird. 

“I’m 24, so  _ not _ a kid.” Levi caught the boy’s side glance and returned it with narrowed eyes. What an annoying brat. Hanji laughed and the blond only looked nervously at his friend. If looks could kill, this Eren guy would already be dead. 

“My turn!” Hanji chirped up, still hugging the blond’s arm. “Let’s see... Science! I love science! Loved it since the moment I was first confronted with it.” She stated proudly but Levi could only roll his eyes and stare out of the window. 

Armin’s eyes widened a little at that and he swallowed. “You.. like science?” He repeated timidly with a shy smile, “I like science too. Probably not as much as you, but I’m really amazed by it...”

“You’re underestimating yourself.” Eren added, “He won’t stop bothering me with biology and physics. He’s crazy about them and the smartest person I’ve ever met, I can assure you.”

“E-Eren-!” Armin stuttered embarrassedly. 

“How cool’s that?!” The brunette pushed up her glasses excitedly, “Armin, you’re my new best friend now! Levi never wanna talk with me about science or maths unless it’s work-related.” Her tone was exasperated. Levi rolled his eyes and exhaled deeply, trying to just ignore Hanji. “Now I finally have someone to talk to!” 

Armin smiled shyly, giving a small nod. “Yeah...”

“Your turn, Armin.” The woman poked the boy’s shoulder impatiently. 

“Uhm... Well, I love reading books. Any types of books, really. But I think mystery and anthology are my favorite genres..” The blond admitted, letting out a short chuckle. 

“You gotta recommend me some good books to read then! I count on you!” Hanji winked and Armin nodded in response, smiling even more. 

“Hey, old man.” Eren spoke and everyone fell silent at the table. Even Hanji was staring at him with eyes wide as saucers. Levi didn’t think this brat was talking with him but when he felt him tapping his shoulder, the raven gave him a side glance. 

“Excuse me?” Levi raised a brow. Did this guy have a death wish? Calling him an old man? The hell was wrong with him?!

“Oh, good. You can hear me. It’s your turn.”

“Tch!” Levi clicked his tongue, his eyes narrowed, “I’m not playing any stupid games with you. Leave me out of it.”

“Oh, come on. I was hoping to hear stories about World War II? Or maybe something about the time before the internet and color TV were a thing?” 

Levi’s brow twitched in irritation and rage. This brat... Levi did not look like an old man! People kept telling him he looked younger than he was! How dare he say something like that?! And why the hell did this kid talk to him like that?!

“You think you’re really funny, huh?! I don’t think you’ll have much to say once I’m done kicking your damned ass.” The raven’s voice was low and dangerous, a growl, his gaze murderous. His hands were balled into fists as his eyes locked with Eren’s. 

“Why my ass?” The boy questioned, no trace of fear in his being, without batting an eye, and not breaking the eye contact for a single second, even leaning closer to Levi’s face. “‘Cause you can’t reach my face?” His voice dripped arrogance and, God, his eyes gleamed and this guy smirked. A fat, shit-eating, smug, cocky brat smirk. 

That was new. Usually, when Levi threatened someone, that person would shut up and leave him alone. Never even once anyone talked back to him like that or seemed this unfazed about his not so harmless and very honest threats.

“Fucking brat-” Levi snarled furiously, his hand coming up to roughly fist a handful of Eren’s shirt. Before he had the chance to do anything, though, Hanji jumped up and went between them to stop Levi from hurting Eren. 

“Okaaay, that’s enough-“ The woman chuckled a little nervously. She knew Levi well and knew he would not hold back from beating up someone who talked to him like that. Unfortunately, that was how Levi was. Bold and straight to the point if something was that much of a nuisance to him. They both knew it wasn’t the right way to solve things, so Hanji was trying to keep him from hurting anyone and avoid trouble. “C’mon, Eren, let’s swap seats. Alright?” 

Levi and Eren were still gazing at each other intensely until Eren finally pulled his gaze away and looked somewhere else, the grin lingering on his lips. Levi’s expression was still dark, his brows furrowed deeply and his body stiff. His teeth were clenched so hard it started to hurt and he had this uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. The feeling that this wasn’t the last time Eren would drive him to insanity. This brat enjoyed himself way too much for Levi’s liking. 

Fucking kids, always annoying him. He wanted to get rid of him as fast as possible. 

Apparently, that wouldn’t happen anytime soon. He and this Armin were Hanji’s friends now... Until they finished their job and could go back, Levi would be stuck with him. 

Until then, the less time he was forced to spend with Eren, the better. 

“Eren, honey, c’mon.” Hanji urged gently and the brunet finally stood up to swap seats with Hanji who placed her hand on Levi’s knee. She was worried. 

“Alright?” She murmured to Levi who still was glaring at Eren. It seemed as if he didn’t hear her because Levi didn’t answer for a while but he eventually just grunted and looked somewhere else. He gave Hanji a short nod, folded his arms over his chest and exhaled deeply. 

“29 and 30! 29 and 30, please!” Someone in the back shouted loudly through the restaurant. Hanji heard it and smiled at her friend, rubbing his knee, “That’s our order.” The brunette hopped up and waved Eren along to help her carrying the tablets. They brought them over together and took a seat again as they gave everyone their food and began eating. 

Most of the time, everyone was quiet. Every here and there, Hanji made a comment about whatever came to her mind. Be it music, books, or how a mitosis worked. She was the reason the table didn’t fall quiet for too long. 

Every so often, Levi’s gaze fell on Eren who, in return, gave Levi that innocent smile and ate his burgers without a comment. But Levi wouldn’t fall for his feigned innocence. That brat was a devil. On the other hand, Armin and Hanji seemed to get along really well. There was absolutely no tension between them. The two smiled and laughed together, had fun chatting. 

They got done with eating soon and Levi got up to go and wash his hands. Once he entered the restroom, he could smell such a disgusting stench coming from the booth. It made him cringe hard and force back the urge to puke. He had to admit, though, that restrooms weren’t just a German problem- they were disgusting everywhere. But Levi had to wash his hands. 

He turned on the faucet with his fingertips and took some soap from the dispenser as he began washing his hands thoroughly under the cold water, trying to not breathe through his nose. The door of the restroom opened and Levi looked up to see it was Eren- that kid looked even taller now that they were standing side by side. A huge construct. Levi could lift his hand and would just barely reach the top of his head, that’s how big Eren was. Close to Erwin’s height, if not even taller. 

“Wow, Levi, did you have to contaminate the air in here like that?” The boy waved a hand in front of his face, referring to the smell. “My mom has things that help against constipation. Want me to get you something?”

Levi’s brows furrowed tightly and he clenched his fists under the water. “Listen-“ He snarled, clutching Eren’s shirt and yanking him down so they were at the same eye level. One was for sure, height didn’t intimidate Levi at all. 

While Levi was boiling, Eren just chuckled, catching Levi by surprise. That laugh was so random. “What’s so funny?!” He demanded firmly. 

“Nothing.” Eren said calmly, “I just like to watch how easy it is to get you angry. I’m just joking around with you.” 

“Tch!” The raven shoved him back roughly and walked past him. Levi wasn’t a clown and he didn’t like how this guy was pissing him off just to have a laugh. He had no idea how it was in Germany, but where he came from, people didn’t just make each other angry for fun. Or maybe that guy hit his head too many times. Maybe his stupidly long hair absorbed all of his brain cells. Whatever it was, Levi didn’t like it at all. 

He approached Hanji and yanked her off her seat, grabbed his coat and began to drag her towards the exit. “We’re leaving.” This was getting too much for Levi and he feared he might end up hurting someone, so leaving early seemed like a good choice to him. 

“Woah-“ Hanji stumbled, holding onto Levi’s arm for support so she wouldn’t fall. “Okay, fine- But don’t pull me like that-!” She managed to get out of Levi’s grip and stood straight, fixing her clothes a little. 

“Ehm... Bye. See you.” Armin waved a bit awkwardly, looking between the two and his friend who came back from the restrooms. 

“See you tomorrow!” She called out, waving as goodbye before Levi started dragging her outside again. He had to get away from these two- actually, only from Eren. Armin hadn’t annoyed him, hadn’t even talked to him to begin with. 

As they stomped through the snow, their breath was coming out in white, soft puffs of air. The temperature was really low but Levi didn’t bother to put on his coat. The hotel was just around the corner anyway. The snow was reflecting the Christmas lights all around which made the night look more like an afternoon, apart from the many specks of lights in the sky, of course. There was a huge, decorated tree and several smaller ones on the other side of the big place. The whole place actually looked quite nice but Levi didn’t have time for that now. He was busy trying to get a clear head. 

Within a few minutes, the two were back in their hotel room and Levi was sitting on his bed, holding his pounding fist on his lap. He punched the walls of the elevator a little too hard on their way up, now it was hurting. 

Hanji left to get him some ice and placed it on his knuckles, making him hiss. “Serves you right.” She huffed, “Nobody told you to punch that wall.”

“That bastard is too much. He’s driving me insane out of enjoyment! What kind of fucked up shit is that?!” He spat, his frown deeper than ever. 

“I’m sure he didn’t mean it-“

“He told me that in my face!” Levi interrupted sharply before closing his eyes and inhaling deeply. He held his breath for a few seconds before slowly exhaling and focusing on Hanji’s hand on his back. Getting worked up and letting it out on Hanji wouldn’t help now, it was so energy consuming and Levi was so tired. That whole day was such a pain, he wanted it to be over already. 

“That’s good, it’s okay.” Hanji whispered and stroked back Levi’s hair, “You need some sleep, hm? Bet the world looks better tomorrow.” 

Only nodding in agreement, Levi quietly got up to change his clothes. They still needed to unpack their suitcases and get some tidiness in their room, but Levi decided that was a task for the next day. Now he just wanted to sleep. Changing his clothes was quickly done and Levi got into bed afterwards, reaching for his phone. 

Hanji got changed as well and let herself fall into the other bed with a loud sigh. “I’m so tired!” She yawned and curled up underneath her blanket, then switched off the lights. “G’night, Levi.”

“Night.” The raven answered, going through the messages on his phone. He saw that he still didn’t answer Petra, so decided to do that before sleeping. 

_ Levi _

_ The flight was alright and everything is well. How are Isabel and you?  _

Just when Levi was about to put his phone away, not expecting Petra to answer him anytime soon, it vibrated.

_ Petra _

_ We’re good. I’m glad to hear everything is well! :D _

_ Have fun, you hear? I know you’re a hard-working man but take some breaks in between.  _

_ Levi _

_ This country is the worst. I’ll make sure this will be a short stay.  _

_ Petra _

_ Just don’t overwork yourself.  _

_ And what do you mean ‘the worst’? Did you already have trouble? _

Levi paused and furrowed his brows in confusion when he looked at the time. What was the time difference between them and home now? They were in totally different time zones now. What if Petra was supposed to be sleeping? He wouldn’t want to keep her awake. So Levi googled it and let out a short sigh when he saw it was just afternoon for his family. Six hours earlier. That meant he could see Isabel in the time after work and before going to sleep. At least one good thing Levi had that day. 

_ Petra _

_ «Picture» _

_ Maybe seeing Isabel will lift your mood :) _

_ Levi _

_ Yeah, thank you.  _

And it really did help. It was as if most of Levi’s anger vanished away and a look of contentment took over his features. There was his daughter, playing and having fun in the snow. She looked so cute. She made him forget about all the trouble with Eren earlier and finally find some peace at mind. 

_ Levi _

_ I’ll go to sleep now, it’s been a long day.  _

_ Petra _

_ Of course. Sleep well! _

Levi finally put his phone onto the nightstand to let it charge, putting it on silent, and slowly closed his eyes. To calm down and get some rest after such a long day was good. His body needed it dearly. Just when Levi was ready to drift off to sleep, he could hear footsteps and opened his eyes to see Hanji standing at his bed. He blinked a couple of times before scooting over to make room for her on his bed. 

Hanji wordlessly crawled into the bed and scooted close to Levi, wrapping her arms around his waist and pressing her face into his chest. The first night in a new place was always the hardest for Hanji and Levi was used to it. The first few times Hanji asked if she could sleep next to him, Levi was confused and didn’t get why a grown up woman couldn’t sleep in her room alone. 

Once he understood why, though, he didn’t question it anymore and shared his bed with Hanji whenever she needed it. It started with her regularly knocking at his door at night until Levi decided it was enough and told Erwin to book only one room with two beds. That way, it was easier for them both and Levi could keep an eye on her whenever he needed to, even when they weren’t in the same bed. There was a time Levi was extremely worried for Hanji’s well being and insisted on sleeping next to each other every day. It was better now but he still wasn’t completely convinced Hanji was alright all the time. Especially not when it got night and her thoughts were places they shouldn’t be. 

The raven threw the blanket over them both and cradled Hanji’s head gently, running his fingers through her thick hair. “...Are you alright?” She asked in a small voice, as if fearing someone might hear her. 

“I am.” Levi responded, just as quietly. 

“Are you sure?” Hanji repeated, nuzzling Levi’s chest a little. It almost sounded like a sob. “Everything’s alright..?”

“Yes, everything is perfectly fine.” He assured her yet again, letting her move as she wanted. “Sleep well, Hanji. We’ll talk in the morning, okay?”

The brunette nodded with a sigh and stopped moving around so much as she tried to get some sleep instead. Levi continued stroking her hair and closed his eyes as well to sleep. The first day was over finally, and Levi didn’t want to think about the next day yet. That was a task for future Levi to deal with.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren is annoying and Levi has to deal with it. Its making his blood boil. Is he gonna make it without beating the crap outta his new German "friend"?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOW-- lets ignore the fact that i havent been gone for like almost half a year ^^’
> 
> ...do 9k words make up for that? ._. 
> 
> life got in the way and i havent been able to work much on the next chapter-- bUT i did manage to finally get it written down and i think i found my motivation again (at least i hope so)
> 
> lets aLSO ignore the fact that ive started about 5 wips but never got to finish any of it and probably wont anytime soon either ooF ;-; one day im gonna learn how to manage life and then im gonna kick ass and update more frequently!!
> 
> until then please enjoy this piece of trash and leave feedback if you like,, thank u very much <3

The next morning rolled around soon and with it came the cold. Levi awoke, shivering, and blinked his eyes open to see where his blanket went, only to catch Hanji all wrapped up in it like a burrito, sleeping soundly. It made him frown and yank the blanket away from her to cover himself with it. Letting out a sigh, Levi closed his eyes. He would rest in bed a few minutes longer since it was so cold. The preheated blanket warmed his body and let him relax again. 

Not Hanji, though. Having the blanket taken away while she slept was not at all something she seemed to like. She groaned like an animal and tapped her hand around the bed, too tired to open her eyes. When she felt the blanket, she pulled it right back to herself and snuggled into the warmth, letting out a content hum. 

While Hanji was satisfied, Levi furrowed his brows and reached over to yank the blanket back, annoyed. “Tch!”

“Leviiiii!” The woman whined, “gimme the blankeeet!!”

“Get your own, Shit Glasses.” He huffed, holding the blanket tightly while Hanji grabbed the other side of it and they both tried to pull the blanket to their own side. 

“But I wanna have this one! It’s already warm!” She argued with pouty lips. 

Levi just yanked the blanket harder at this, “not my problem. That’s my bed and my blanket so-”

“I farted into it!” Hanji cut in quickly. 

That made Levi‘s face twist up in horror and he tossed the blanket back over the brunette. “Fucking disgusting!” He snarled and decided to get off the bed, too grossed out to stay near that weirdo any minute longer. 

The brunette fell into a fit of laughter and giggles and wrapped herself into the warmth of the blanket. “So warm...” She mused softly and closed her eyes to get some more rest while Levi disappeared in the bathroom. Ten minutes later or so, he came out again and walked over to shake Hanji by her shoulder. 

“Get up and brush your teeth. I’ll tidy up here.” 

Hanji glanced up at Levi with a sigh before dragging herself out of bed and stretching her limbs. “I wanna go some place today. Oh- I’ll ask Armin and Eren to come with us and-”

“Fucking-” Levi cursed under his breath at the mention of these two, “we can go without them. There’s no need to take them with us.”

“But Levi... They’re our friends.” She pouted, a cursed and very known pout. It was a little like with Isabel- Hanji was just this childish and sometimes (most of the times) she got her way with it. Levi just had a soft spot for his girls. He cursed himself for it, it was his own fault. 

“They’re  _ your _ friends. That brat boy is being a pain in my ass.” He folded his arms over his chest stoically. 

Hanji said nothing and only batted her eyelashes at her friend, her eyes growing bigger and bigger. 

“...Tch.” Levi clicked his tongue, looking away and frowning. 

As if to underline her plea, Hanji folded her hands in front of her and whimpered softly. Once. Twice. Then Levi finally gave in and growled, “fucking hell, fine! Stop acting like a damned kicked puppy.”

Victorious and happy, Hanji bounced up and down and pulled Levi into a hug. “Yay! Thank you so much! I’ll call Armin and tell him to meet us at- Ow!” Hanji was quick to hurry and get her phone but Levi was faster to grab her hair and stop her midway. 

He turned her head to stare at her, eyes narrowed, “one condition. You take a shower before we leave.”

“I just took a shower last week!” She defended in shock, “I’ll take a shower tomorr- Ow!!” Levi tugged on her hair when she said that and furrowed his brows even more. 

“How about tonight- OW!!”

They stared at each other, long and hard. Maybe Hanji hit his soft spot but Levi wouldn’t just let her get away with it without having something in return. The least she had to do was taking a shower. It surely wasn’t too much to ask for. 

“Fine, fine!” She groaned exasperatedly, “I’ll take a shower now. Just let me call them so they can get ready as well.” 

At that, Levi let go of Hanji’s hair to let her use her phone while he was taking care of his clothes in the suitcase. He brought it over to one of the closets and began moving his clothes inside. That way, he would have a better overview of which clothes he would wear and they wouldn’t get all wrinkled and messed up in the suitcase. He’d have a system and could organize himself during the time they needed to stay there. 

“That sounds perfect! See you then!” Hanji exclaimed at the phone and turned over to Levi afterwards. “Armin has to get something done for his university first, so we’ll meet at 10 in a mall that’s close to us! He sent me the address- Isn’t it amazing how we have everything so close to us? I bet this is the best place in Berlin we could get!” 

“Thrilling.” Levi dismissed rather quickly, not that interested in the whole matter, “we have almost an hour until then. Go take a shower now. I’ll take care of your stuff. And Hanji,” he sounded more serious now, “make sure you really take a shower or else I will have to.” 

“Yeah, yeah,” she waved her hand around and made her way to the bathroom where she closed the door and undressed. While Hanji was showering, Levi was taking care of filling the other closet with Hanji’s clothes. Just like with his own, he was organizing everything and hang up what needed to be hung, like jackets or suits. 

The more important things, like their passports and money, Levi put them all together in a plastic bag and wrapped it up. He then used some tape to fix the little wrap-up on the underside of the slatted frame. That was the safest place. It would be too obvious in any bag or under their clothes and Levi didn’t trust the hotel safes at all because he didn’t know who had access to it. Nobody would get the idea to look underneath the slatted frame for money that could’ve been taped there, so that always seemed like the safest place to him. That far, it indeed was a safe place for their belongings. 

“Leviii!” Hanji soon called out, the door of the bathroom opened partly, “I forgot to take my clothes!” 

Sighing heavily, Levi opened her closet and reached for undergarments, jeans and a shirt. Other than Hanji, he kept it simple. He took everything over to the bathroom and handed it to Hanji, who was hiding her body behind the door. “Thank youuu!” was the last thing she said before closing the door to get dressed. Meanwhile, Levi used that time to get dressed as well and folded his pajamas neatly, placing them back into the closet afterwards. 

When Hanji came out of the bathroom, she was only wearing her undergarments and frowned at Levi. “That’s not what I wanted to wear. You have no sense of fashion.” She huffed, making Levi roll his eyes. 

“A crime to wear something normal,” he muttered under his breath. “Just get dressed so we can go.” The raven walked over to the window and leaned against the sill, gazing outside. 

The faster they got there, the faster it would be over. And Levi really wanted to get over with it quick. 

As Levi was looking outside, he noticed one thing immediately: there was a heck ton of construction sites. The little street that lead to their hotel, right at the Berlin Wall, on the other side, the bridge they would be working on, and not to mention the ones he saw on their way from the airport to the hotel; one could say Berlin is a huge construction site itself. He never saw so many in such a short period. And he had yet to see the city. No wonder the Germans didn’t get anything done by their own if they start so much at once- just dumb. 

Levi sighed yet again, a little annoyed and a little irritated. Whatever. He turned around to look whether Hanji was done changing yet or not and saw her tying up her hair. She was wearing a long, black skirt that reached under her knees with pink legwarmers underneath. The skirt was a kind of petticoat kind of skirt with a bright yellow turtleneck on top. Levi cringed at her choice of colors but decided to not comment on it. 

“Aren’t you going to freeze like that?” 

At that, Hanji lifted her skirt and grinned at him, showing the leggings she wore under the skirt, “nope! I thought this through!”

“Why are you dressing so... special anyway?” Hanji didn’t wear skirts or dresses very often, but when she did, there was a reason behind it and Levi was suspicious. 

“Hm? I’m not dressed any more special than any day. Why would I want to dress in a special way to begin with? We’re just gonna go sightseeing, nothing special.” She chuckled a little but Levi’s suspicious gaze didn’t leave her. She was trying to hide something, he knew her well enough. 

“I see.” He said evenly, deciding to not press the matter. Levi would find out one way or another. “Let’s go, then.”

They both put on their shoes and took their coats as they left the room and locked it behind themselves. Then the two left their hotel and got on their way to that mall Hanji spoke about earlier, where they would meet the brats. 

The mall didn’t even look that bad. It was quite big and had many shops at several floors. The whole mall was decorated as well with Christmas trees, garlands, bulbs, ornaments and little shiny lights everywhere. Not even Levi could deny it was looking beautiful. Everything was heated as well and there were more than enough places to sit; a really cozy place. 

“Where will we find them in such a huge place?!” The brunette exclaimed in terror, as if they were absolutely lost in there. 

Levi rolled his eyes, not amused, and flicked her ear, “call one of the brats, Shit Glasses. And stop shouting.”

Making a small ‘oh!’ sound, Hanji took her phone and called Armin while she looked around the place. 

“Hey! We’re already here but we can’t see you anywhere.” Hanji spoke, still looking around in hopes to spot them. “Hmm... No.. Oh! Yeah, I see that. Sounds great. Alright, see you!” 

She hung up and turned to Levi, pointing at the direction, “we will meet them over there. Armin said to just wait next to that supermarket.” 

With a nod, the short male followed Hanji over to the supermarket and folded his arms over his chest, scanning his surroundings calmly. They stood there for only a few minutes until he heard Hanji gasping and followed her gaze to see the two boys approaching them. 

“Heeeeeyyy!” She hurried over, jumped and threw her arms around Eren’s neck who caught the woman like it was nothing, looking a little surprised but there was still a smile on his lips. 

“Hi. Did we keep you waiting long?” Eren asked as he set Hanji back to the ground and glanced over at Levi. 

“Tch.” The raven sounded, averting his gaze so he didn’t have to look at Eren. He was doing this only for Hanji. 

“Nope! Not at all!” Hanji grinned and looked at the blond next, stepping closer to pull him into a hug as well. The way she hugged Armin was different- it was more tender and softer, longer. Gentle.  _ Loving _ . 

Slowly, but surely, Levi understood. 

Armin was blushing and smiled bashfully, using one arm to return Hanji’s embrace. He very hesitantly let it rest on Hanji’s back while she placed her head on his shoulder, letting out a soft, little hum. She didn’t break the hug, and neither did Armin, so the two stood there like that for quite some time. 

“Soo...” Levi flicked his eyes up at the tall figure next to him when he heard his voice. “Do I get a hug too?” The brunet asked, opening his arms and giving Levi a timid smile. 

Though, Levi only responded with a “fuck off” and took a few steps away to create distance. A hug? This brat was insane if he thought Levi would touch him- yet to think to hug him! No. Never. Not happening. 

Eren was chuckling and let his arms fall to his side again as he turned to look at his friend. He didn’t look very affected by it- he was definitely just trying to get Levi angry again. 

“Oi, Shit Glasses. Get done with it already.” He called out to the brunette who squeezed Armin and soon pulled back to look at his flushed face. She reached up to ruffle his short, blond hair and turned her face towards Levi. 

“Sorry,” she laughed, “let’s go. I wanna see Berlin!”

“U-uhm... I have something.... f-for you..” Armin mumbled, so quiet that only Hanji understood. The woman looked at him again and gasped when Armin held out a small bouquet of flowers he was hiding behind his back. Beautiful, colorful flowers. Like a small rainbow. 

“Oh my God, they are lovely.” Hanji gushed softly, taking the flowers and smelling them with a happy smile. “My, my! What a gentleman! Glad there are still people like you nowadays.” 

“...I’m glad you like them.” Armin said softly and smiled, his cheeks tinted in a faint pink color. 

Levi exhaled deeply, pinching the bridge of his nose. Why.... just  _ why _ ?

“Hey, old man.” Levi’s brow twitched in irritation as his eyes instantly flicked up at the tall brunet with a murderous glare. 

“What did you-“ He was stopped mid sentence when he felt Eren tucking a flower behind his ear. The boy smiled and poked Levi’s cheek lightly, “stop scowling so much, you’ll get wrinkles. You should try to smile every once in a while.”

It made Levi frown deeper. He took the flower on his ear and threw it to the ground angrily, stepping on it. “And you, asshole, should stay out of my fucking business and fuck off already, bastard! Tch! So damn annoying!” He growled and walked to the closest door he saw. This Eren was getting too much on his nerves and Levi didn’t like it in any way. Couldn’t he just leave him be? 

Why was Eren acting like that anyway? Was he really that bored? Gay? Lonely? Or was he just born annoying? Whatever it was, wasn’t Levi making it obvious he was not interested in any kind of interaction with him? Maybe Hanji got a little crush on the blond boy but that didn’t mean Levi would have to deal with the other one. How much he regretted coming to Germany. 

The worst decision of his life. 

Levi stood outside in the snow, shivering and freezing. Germany was so damn cold. He rubbed his hands together, in attempts to create friction and warmth, and occasionally glanced at the people entering and leaving the mall. Why didn’t he think about a scarf or gloves? He must’ve forgotten on his way out of the hotel. 

Soon, he could see Hanji from the corner of his eye and frowned more than he already did. “That was not very nice of you!” She scolded and stood in front of him, folding her arms and tapping her foot like a mother scolding her child. 

“Like I care.” Levi rolled his eyes. 

“What’s even your problem? Eren is being so cute and you go and kick him in the face like that!”

“I really wish I could kick his face,” the raven muttered under his breath. 

“He didn’t do anything that deserved this treatment from you!” Hanji defended the youth firmly, eyeing Levi closely. “You said he is trying to make you angry to have a laugh- but that is absolutely not what I am seeing! I think-”

“-Listen. Hanji. This boy thinks we are here to entertain him and his little friend. We’re foreigners and that makes us an easy target.” Levi’s eyes flicked between Hanji’s, his gaze steady, firm. 

“But-“

“No buts. I’m telling you the way it is. You trust people too easily, you’re too naive for the truth. They’re just trying to have some fun for a while.”

“Not true! They’re our friends! My friends! And they haven’t done anything for you to think this way! They were both kind to us all the time while all you do is getting angry! I don’t even know what’s wrong with you!” Hanji was practically shouting, making people turn to stare at them like they were some kind of drama show. 

Levi narrowed his eyes, speaking firm and low to Hanji, “Wrong with  _ me _ ?  _ You’re _ the one going around and befriending every second person you see. Now you think you have a crush on that brat. Tch-!” Yanking the flowers Armin gave her earlier from her arms, Levi threw them to the ground and ground them under his shoe, crushing them in the mud. Hanji’s mouth hung open at that, her eyes wide in surprise and shock. “Acting all shy and nice, giving you flowers and making compliments. Tch, what for?”

Levi stepped closer to Hanji, talking to her in a low voice, glaring into her eyes, clenching his fists. “You think that brat really likes you? You know him for literally one day.  _ One fucking day _ , Zoe. What’s next? Inviting you over? Taking you on a date? A kiss, a fuck and it’s  _ over _ .” The raven snarled, leaving Hanji dumbfounded for a couple of seconds. “They’re toying around with us and you’re not even noticing.” He added in a hiss which finally made Hanji speak up as well;

“Woah, woah, woah. Now take it easy there.” The brunette shook her head in disbelief and exhaled, long and deep and a little annoyed. “I have absolutely no idea what’s wrong with you but get your shit together, Levi. Honestly, you’re overreacting for no reason. Armin and Eren are wonderful people, you’re just thinking they’re bad because they’re Germans, and that’s pretty racist if you ask me. Don’t know what’s wrong in your head but once you come back to your senses, let me know.”

“Where do you think you’re going?!” Levi snarled. 

“Well,” Hanji gave him a side glance, “I’m gonna spend the day with Armin and Eren, they’ll show me the city like we agreed on doing. In case you decide you can keep your ridiculous and pointless anger down, you can gladly join us.” Turning away, Hanji walked back into the mall, leaving Levi outside to himself. The raven was furious, enraged. 

How dare Hanji put him as the wrong one? They didn’t know these people! They could lie to them all the time, could be a danger! Why was Hanji so set on befriending them?! They would do just fine without them- in fact, much better without them! The hell was wrong with that woman?!

Levi’s eyebrow twitched, his teeth clenched so hard it began hurting. His fist rose and slammed against the entrance door with such intensity to make it shake. Black hair shadowed Levi’s dark expression, furrowed brows and almost barbaric gaze. The muscles of his body stiff and tense. People took distance from Levi, some stared, but Levi ignored them all and instead glanced into the mall through the glass door. 

Hanji was standing there with the two boys, holding the blond’s arm and talking with Eren, who looked angry. Not really mad, but angry for sure. Hanji probably was trying to calm him with words. She waved her hand around a little as she spoke before hooking her arm with Eren’s as well and walking somewhere into the mall. Levi kept a close eye on them and when they were about to disappear from his sight, the short male pushed the door to walk inside. 

The door didn’t open, though. He pushed again and cursed under his breath, then ended up kicking the door. “Tch!” 

“...Ziehen. Eh.. Pull.” A woman near him spoke, pointing at the door with one finger. Levi looked at her, then at the door, then back at her and finally at the door again with distrust. 

Pulling the door this time, it opened. 

“Fucking-..” Levi stomped inside angrily and clicked his tongue as he looked around for Hanji and the brats. He hated himself for going back to them voluntarily but he didn’t have much of a choice; if Hanji would be alone with these brats, he didn’t know how safe she would be. She had no one to look out for her if Levi let them go wherever alone. Even though he was really mad at her at the moment, he went after that weirdo to make sure Armin and- especially- Eren stayed at a proper distance to her. Rather safe than sorry. 

Once he found the three, Levi made his way over and ungracefully divided the group so Eren was standing alone. The other two looked confused, at least until Hanji saw Levi and furrowed her brows. “I see you decided to come with us,” she spoke and folded her arms over her chest- she did that quite often when she spoke in a serious way, “but you need to apologize to Eren. You called him names and spoke in a very rude way to him. That was not acceptable.”

The brunet in question flicked his gaze down to the short male by his side, his brows knit together and his lips not in a smile like they were most of the time. His gaze lingered on Levi who returned the stare silently. The silence surrounded them and, for a couple of moments, it was as if it was only them. As if everyone around them disappeared for the intensity of that moment. 

Levi had absolutely no clue what could be going on in Eren‘s head, what he could be thinking. But Levi knew for sure that he himself wouldn’t apologize for something this brat practically forced him to. If Eren wouldn’t have annoyed him, Levi would never have said anything to him. Eren just had to leave him alone- it wasn’t that hard, was it?

“What’s your problem, brat?” Levi grumbled through his teeth, forcing himself to keep the anger out of his voice this time. Maybe calmly talking some sense into that boy would do the thing. 

“Problem?” Eren questioned almost innocently, “I don’t have any problems.”

Levi exhaled, “remember when I told you to mind your own damned business?”

“Yeah. That was yesterday, I think. Today too. Why?” 

Levi stared at the brunet who gave him a confused look. Exhaling one more time, Levi spoke up again, firm and clear. Maybe Eren’s English wasn’t good enough to understand the meaning of it. “When someone tells you to ‘mind your own business’ or to ‘fuck off’, that means to leave that person alone. That you-“

“Oh, I know what that means,” Eren grinned a bit, “I’m not dumb.” 

Silence. Long silence. Levi blinked up at Eren who stared down at him in return.

...What? Now Levi was the confused one. If this boy knew what he meant and understood him, why wasn’t he leaving him alone then?

“Oi, if that’s some kind of trick to make me angry again, I swear-”

“Shh!” Eren hushed suddenly, grabbed Levi’s hand and stepped closer. He squeezed the raven’s hand, inching closer so their faces were only inches apart and pressing a finger against the other’s lips. “Shh...” This time, Levi was the dumbfounded one. With slightly widened eyes, he stared into Eren’s big, bright ones. 

They were a beautiful shade of turquoise and, unwillingly studying them from this close, he noticed the golden-honey colored specks in the center, circling the black of his pupils like a never ending sunrise. He hadn’t gotten the chance to notice this about Eren’s eyes earlier. They were gorgeous. 

“I’m doing this for us, Levi. You and me.” A mere whisper, the words meeting Levi’s lips with Eren’s hot breath. “I’m doing all this just for us.” Eren began caressing Levi’s hand with his thumb, Levi still speechless. He wanted to say something, opened his mouth, but nothing came. The words stuck in his throat. 

What was even happening? Why was Levi’s heart beating like crazy? Warmth swarmed into his chest, his knees suddenly feeling so weak, his hands getting sweaty. His stomach felt weird, as if he was constipated. 

What was even that feeling? 

Carefully letting out the breath he didn’t know he was holding, Levi finally found his voice again. But all that came out was a short and breathy “what?”

The brunet came even closer, making their noses brush together ever so lightly, his hand finding its way down to Levi’s hip and pulling them together.  _ Oh God _ , Levi’s heart was going insane, thumping so loud, he feared everyone around him could hear it. Never in his life has anyone made him feel this way- so weak and so out of control of his own body. That new sensation he experienced was not at all in his liking. 

He was so overwhelmed and confused with the whole situation and it was easy to take notice of that in his expression. 

It took a few long seconds of utter silence until Eren began chuckling out of the blue and pulled away from the raven, letting go of his hands in the process and recreating the distance between them. He stood straight again, “God, you have to see your face. I’m just messing with you.” The brunet shook his head a little and tucked a loose strand of hair behind his ear. “That’s payback for calling me a bastard and shouting at me all the time. We both had our fun, now we’re quits.”

Levi blinked a couple of times before the frown returned to his face and all the emotion from a moment ago vanished. “...You’re being a fucking pain in my ass, I hope you know that!” He almost stuttered at first but managed to maintain a strong voice and clenched his fists tightly. 

The tall brunet smirked, “of course. I sure hope so.”

That bastard! He was driving him mad again and was having fun doing so! And Levi fell for it! Levi hated that guy so fucking much!

“Alright, I think that’s enough flirting for now.” Hanji spoke up before Levi could really say anything in return and draped an arm around her short friend. “We all love each other again and that’s great. But I don’t wanna stay here all day. Let’s go somewhere already!”

The raven shot Eren a glare before Hanji began dragging him along to start walking again. With her other hand, she was holding Armin’s arm, Eren following by their side. Levi decided to drop the matter, not only because he felt embarrassed to talk about it, because he did not like what just happened, but also because he wanted to forget about it and never talk about this specific matter ever again. 

Hanji and Armin saw them, and knowing Hanji, she would sooner or later bring it up again. He would just have to try to avoid it as well as he could. Judging from the grin Hanji wore, though, he knew that was inevitable. Dammit. 

On the other hand, Levi didn’t at all like what Eren just did. Taking him by surprise like that and making fun of him next to everyone. It was humiliating. Levi wasn’t even attracted to men, so it confused him only more how Eren made him feel this way with such a simple action. 

It was most likely only because it’s been a while since Levi last had any intimacy. Eren just caught him by surprise with his boldness and his handsome face, there was no meaning behind it. Levi wasn’t gay, not in any way. That was out of question. 

It only had such an affect on him because it had been years since someone last spoke with and touched him like that. It surely wouldn’t happen another time. 

He wanted to forget about it as fast as even possible. 

“We could walk along the Wall,” Armin suggested. 

“Can we get some food afterwards? I’m starving!” Hanji groaned dramatically which Levi could only roll his eyes at. 

Eren hummed in agreement, “then let’s eat something here and take a walk afterwards.”

And so, the four of them discussed where they’d eat breakfast. The decision fell on a bakery rather quick since it was close and seemed right for a breakfast. They got into the bakery, chose what they wanted and took a seat at one of the tables there. Hanji sat next to Armin, obviously, which lead to Eren sitting next to Levi. The raven tried to keep distance to him but the table was too small to scoot his chair away enough. 

Underneath the table, Eren’s knee was touching his. No matter how far he tried to turn his legs away or how many times he roughly shoved Eren’s legs away, somehow, Eren always found a way to be in touch with Levi. At some point, Levi gave up with a heavy sigh and just let it happen because it made him feel stupid to keep moving his legs around like that. 

If Eren found it  _ sooo _ important that their legs touched, hell, fine. Whatever. Levi was so sick of all that. 

He just took his cup of coffee and drank from it, not having bought anything to eat since he wasn’t hungry to begin with. In the mornings, he never had a big appetite. Coffee was enough- he liked tea better but wasn’t satisfied with the poor offer of tea blends, so simple coffee would do for now. 

The others were enjoying different sorts of sandwiches, together with something sugary and their beverages. It was quiet for a while, calm, until Hanji decided to speak up and break the silence. 

“Eren, you haven’t told us much about yourself. Armin told me a lot about his life already, so what about you? Do you have any hobbies? Interests? A special  _ someone _ ?” She said the last part teasingly, playful. 

The brunet laughed a bit at that, “no. There’s nobody.”

“What?!” Hanji gasped in shock, “but look at you! How can you  _ not _ have a girlfriend? Are the women here blind?”

“Well, thank you,” Eren laughed before shrugging a little, “but I don’t know. I haven’t found the right one yet, I guess.”

Hanji winked at him, “I’m gonna help you find someone suitable for you. But you need to tell me about yourself first.” 

“Fine, fine. Let’s see.” The boy thought for a moment as he took a bite of his sandwich. “Hmm... I‘m boxing together with my brother since I was a kid. I’m quite good at it, won a few prizes-”

“A few prizes? Eren won not only the German Championship, but also the European one!” Armin exclaimed suddenly with full elation and enthusiasm, his eyes big with pride. “The World Championship would be in two months!”

Now even Levi was listening to their conversation. Boxing sounded quite interesting, so that was one thing that brat could do right. Levi didn’t act like it but he wanted to hear some more. So he sipped his coffee in silence and glanced at them every once in a while. 

Eren chuckled heartily, seemingly liking to see his friend acting this way, “that’s true. But unfortunately, I won’t be able to participate in it.”

“Huh? But why that?” Hanji asked, all of her attention on Eren now. She was curious. “If you’re so good at it, why aren’t you gonna participate? That’s ridiculous!”

The brunet shook his hands in the air, chuckling, “it’s not that I don’t want to. I’m not allowed to. I’ve got a few issues with my leg, so unless that’s taken care of and heals within less than two months, I’m not allowed to step into the ring.”

Hanji stared for a moment before speaking up in a timid, careful voice, “your leg? Is it something serious?”

Eren shook his head rather quickly, giving the brunette an assuring smile, “nothing you should worry about, I’m fine. It’s a little sad, and ridiculous indeed, but I can live with it until it hopefully gets better.” 

“It’s not ridiculous, Eren. Your health goes first.” The blond smiled at his friend and rubbed his arm, “you’ll take part in the next Championship and you’re gonna be awesome like always. I know it. Immer mit der Ruhe.”

At that, Eren nodded in agreement and drank from his cup. Nonetheless, it still was obvious that Eren wasn’t all that fine with it as he seemed. Even looked a bit worried. 

Levi saw that easily, understood how Eren must be feeling with not being allowed to do something he liked. But an injury shouldn’t be underestimated either. If it wasn’t something serious yet, it could still become something serious. So it was good Eren wasn’t allowed to fight for some time, Levi found it sensible. 

“Tell me more about yourself!” Hanji demanded, “you said you have a brother. Do you have more siblings?”

Levi wasn’t all that interested in that brat anymore and stared somewhere into the bakery, taking a look around. The interesting part was over. 

Eren just chuckled at Hanji’s curiosity, “yeah, I do. We’re kinda a... How do you call it? Patchwork? Patchwork family? Something like that.” 

“For real?!”

“Mhm. My brother has a different mother and my sister is adopted. But we’re still a family, you know? Loving each other and all that.” He snorted to himself and shrugged a bit. 

Meantime, Levi got out his phone to check the time. It wasn’t even noon for him, so Petra and Isabel must still be sleeping. What a shame, he had hoped he could get away from that conversation for a while. Turns out he was stuck with them for some longer. 

With a heavy sigh, Levi shoved his phone back into his pocket and busied himself with drinking his coffee while Hanji continued questioning Eren about whatever she wanted to know. Levi didn’t pay much mind to their conversation, until he felt a tap on his shoulder and heard Eren addressing him. 

“That’s a funny way to hold your cup. Why are you doing that?” 

The raven’s gaze flicked to the cup in his hands and back at Eren, raising a brow. “That’s how I hold my cup. Got a problem with that?”

“Absolutely not.” Eren grinned and used his cup to try and imitate Levi’s way of holding it. When he thought he had a good grip on it, he brought it closer to his lips and took a sip. 

Or, that’s what he intended to do. The cup slipped between his fingers and spilled all over his shirt, the cup itself hitting the floor and breaking. 

“ _ Sch-scheiße _ !” He hissed like a cat and quickly pulled his shirt away from his chest so it wouldn’t stay in contact with his skin while he looked around for napkins. 

Levi watched that happening with a little, evil smirk, hidden behind his cup. That brat got what he deserved, Levi thought. Karma. He was annoying him, now he spilled his hot beverage all over himself. It only seemed fair to him and Levi took a big sip of his coffee in triumph. 

“Eren!” Armin cried in worry and shot up from his seat. 

Hanji cracked into laughter and put a hand in front of her mouth in an attempt to stifle it. It wasn’t funny that Eren spilled the hot coffee over himself, it was a natural reflex for her to laugh as a first reaction. She couldn’t help it. 

When Eren finally found the napkins on the table, he reached for them hastily and tried to soak up the coffee on his shirt. It was hot, so it obviously hurt. 

In his hurry, his elbow accidentally bumped Levi’s cup which in return spilled over the raven’s once white shirt. 

That made Hanji cackle only harder and hold her stomach. “O-oh my God-!!” 

“H-Hanji!” Armin cried, “Stop laughing-! Are you alright, Levi?!”

Levi’s eyes shot wide open immediately as he let go of the cup and reached for napkins for himself. “F-fucking- You did that on purpose!” He snapped at Eren. 

“Did n-not!” Eren defended quickly. 

Levi just grumbled something under his breath before he stood up and made his way to the bathrooms. At least these looked better than the ones at  _ Five Guys _ . Much cleaner, even if not the cleanest. 

Straight away, he pulled his shirt over his head and opened the tap to let the water run over the coffee stained places. His chest glew bright red- but the shirt was more important. It had to get clean. 

It didn’t take long until Eren also joined him in the bathroom. The narrow bathroom. There barely was enough place for two people. Different from Levi, Eren didn’t take off his shirt and just tried to take care of the coffee by using water and paper towels. His shirt had a darker color, so the coffee stains weren’t too obvious. 

“Tch. You did that on purpose.” Levi said with venom in his voice. 

Though, Eren shook his head and furrowed his brows. “I really didn’t. But if I knew it’d get me a nice view of your body...” The youth winked and Levi punched his arm, making him chuckle. 

“Keep your eyes to yourself, pervert. It’s your fault I’ll never get these stains out of my shirt again.” He sighed and held up the drenching shirt over the sink, frowning, “you owe me a new one.” 

“A new shirt, coming right up!” The brunet, surprisingly fast, agreed to Levi and left the bathroom again, leaving Levi back confused. That guy didn’t make any sense. 

Levi just turned back to his shirt and began wringing it out as good as he could to get as much water out of the fabric as even possible- he couldn’t exactly walk around with no shirt in the middle of winter. So the more water he could press out of the shirt, the better. Even if it would still fuck him up since coffee wouldn’t just get out with using only water and some cheap soap. That meant he had to wear a wet and stained shirt- he would just go back to the hotel and get himself a clean one. That’d solve everything. 

Not even a minute later, Eren came back and held up the hoodie he was wearing over his shirt before they ate. It was warm in the bakery, that’s probably why he took it off. The brunet grinned and handed the green-grey-ish sweater to the short male. “Here, you can wear this.”

“Hah? Forget it.” That was not what Levi meant with ‘You owe me a new shirt’. “I’m not going to wear that. I’ll go back to the hotel and wear something else, it will just take-”

“Nope. You’re wearing this.” Eren blocked the door, “we’re not walking all the way back to the hotel only for you to get some fancy clothes.” Levi raised his brows at Eren’s tone but could see it was only played and not real. Eren would look angrier when he was talking in a serious manner, Levi guessed. “Put it on or I’ll force you to. You decide which is more comfortable for you.”

“Not happening,” the short raven spat. 

“You should know I’m pretty stubborn and make sure to get what I want. You’re not leaving this bathroom without a shirt on.” Eren grinned, as if he already won. “Your shirt is wet. If you wear it outside, you’ll get sick. If you wear nothing, you’ll get sick too. You don’t have much of a choice right now, old man.”

Levi was glaring up at the male in front of him. Wearing clothes that weren’t his? And on top of that, Eren’s? He hated it. However, he wasn’t dumb. He saw Eren made a point. And if Eren really had an injured leg, he wouldn’t feel good with making him walk more than necessary. Not to mention that he would most definitely get sick when walking around with a wet shirt in the middle of winter and indeed didn’t really have a choice unless he wanted to get sick, which would lead to staying in that country longer than necessary. Eren was right. 

Levi didn’t like him, but he wasn’t dumb either. 

So, Levi threw his white shirt into the bin and snatched the hoodie with annoyance, eyed it up and down warily for any stains or dirt before he reluctantly pulled it on. Needless to say, it was huge. Huge as in gigantic. Eren was a damn tree, so the hoodie was just as big. It easily reached the middle of his thighs, the sleeves floppy. Levi didn’t look happy in it and was still frowning deeply, feeling ridiculous, like a joke. 

“That looks absurd. It’s way too big, brat.”

“I don’t think so. You look just great.” Eren smiled and gave Levi a thumbs up, “let’s go back to the others. Armin gets worried easily.” He opened the door of the bathroom and held it open for Levi to walk out, “also, I’ll buy you a new coffee and shirt, if you wanna. To make up for it.”

Clicking his tongue and rolling his eyes, Levi stomped out of the bathroom after convincing himself that it wasn’t as bad as he thought it was, still rather irritated, though. He made his way back to the others while rolling up the sleeves to be able to use his hands. Wearing something that wasn’t his felt weird, uncomfortable. Even if the hoodie itself felt comfy and had a... masculine, strong yet warm scent, Levi couldn’t say he really liked it. He felt cramped, straight up awkward. This wasn’t something he was used to doing. 

When Levi arrived back at the table, Hanji was already awaiting them, leaning back into her chair and crossing her arms. “Look at that. Where can I get such a nice sweater from, Shorty?”

“Oh, fuck you.” Levi flipped her off before folding his arms over his chest and looking away with a deep frown. The whole situation got so embarrassing with Hanji making comments, so Levi just wanted to cut her short. He wasn’t in the mood to listen to her bullshit. 

Eren came about a minute later and placed a new cup of coffee he just bought in front of Levi, smiling. “Here’s a new coffee. Black, like the one you drank earlier. No milk, no sugar.” The brunet took a seat again while his big eyes stayed on Levi and the cheeky smile on his lips never left. 

Figuring he had to say something in order for Eren to stop staring at him like a dog waiting for his treat, Levi faced him. His face read boredom but also annoyance- because Eren simply was annoying. “I don’t even like coffee that much but thank you, I guess.”

“Huh?” Eren’s gaze filled with confusion, “if you don’t like it, why do you drink it?”

Levi just rolled his eyes. “They don’t have good tea here.” As if that was explaining it all, Levi turned his head away again and crossed one leg over the other. 

Hanji and Armin were looking at something on Hanji’s phone. The woman was gushing and bubbling over something, which itself wasn’t anything new, so Levi just left it uncommented. It was no wonder she pulled Armin into it either, not that he looked very bothered. He looked as cheery as her. 

The brunette glanced up from her phone several times to look at Eren and Levi before looking back down at it and resting her head on Armin’s shoulder. “How cute,” she murmured to herself, just loud enough for her and Armin to hear. It annoyed Levi because he had the feeling he was somehow involved in whatever they were looking at, though, Levi wasn’t in the mood to argue with her now and let it be. 

“Old man,” the corner of Eren’s lip curled up into a grin, “you still haven’t told us anything about yourself. I bet you’ve got an interesting story to tell from your oh so long life.” 

“Tch.” Levi turned so he was facing Eren and stared him deep in the eye as he spoke, “my life is none of your business. I’m only sitting here with you because, if I leave that weirdo alone with you kids, I won’t get her back in one piece, if at all.” 

Eren chuckled as he put his elbow against the back of his chair to be able to rest his head on his palm and face the raven as well, “you’re acting like we’re kidnappers or killers. We’re just two guys you crossed ways with by coincidence. Now we’re sitting here and drink coffee together. I guess you can’t help it anymore.”

“The hell do you mean ‘you can’t help it anymore’?” The raven narrowed his eyes, “I’m not interested in any kind of relationship. I’m not your friend. There will be nothing more than being in the same room together because of Hanji so don’t get any wrong ideas, brat.”

“Oh?” Eren chuckled, “is that so? And that coming from the guy wearing my sweater and gawking at me all the time? Just admit it, you think I’m irresistible.”

“More like really terrible.” Levi spat without batting an eye. 

“Damn!” Eren put a hand against his chest dramatically and hissed, “that hurt. That really hurt my confidence. Agh.. No, no, that wasn’t nice.”

Rolling his eyes, Levi drank from his coffee and ignored Eren’s act- or at least tried to. Seeing him like that almost made him smile a little, but really just almost. Eren was silly and goofy, an entertainer. As funny as he was, he also was annoying Levi like hell and the raven couldn’t stand it. And it was only morning. 

“You gotta have to make it up to me.”

“Hah?” Levi raised a brow. 

“Yep. I’m thinking of a hug!” Eren suggested and already opened his arms expectantly. 

Levi looked bewildered for the first seconds before the frown returned to his face. “Touch me and I’ll break your arms.” He threatened in a firm voice. 

“You’re not gonna do that.” The brunet stated with a smile on his lips and began inching closer slowly. 

“Oi..” Levi clenched his teeth and leaned back with every inch that Eren came closer. “Don’t tempt me,” Levi only repeated, “you’re gonna regret it.” 

“I gave you my sweater and you scratched my ego. The least I deserve is a hug, don’t you think?” Eren inched even closer and closer. “If you break my arm, you gotta have to make up for that as well.” 

Eren was quick to close the remaining distance between them and wrap both arms around the short male, trapping Levi’s arms in the process to give him no chance to use them. In a matter of seconds, Levi’s head was reluctantly pressed against the youth’s chest and he was unable to push his way out. He wiggled and cursed, tried to punch and kick the brat, but Eren kept a firm hold of him and even had the audacity to rest his cheek on top of Levi’s head. 

“Fucking-” Levi turned to glare up at Eren while the brunet only smiled down at him in return. “Get your filthy hands off me, damned brat..!” 

“Nope,” Eren popped the ‘p’ in a teasing way, “you look like you haven’t gotten a hug in very long. So, you’re not getting out of this until you’re relaxed and calm.” 

There was honestly no way out for Levi. Eren was strong,  _ really _ strong. The muscles of his arms and chest were more than apparent and Levi could feel them everywhere around him, hugging and embracing his much smaller body close and secure in just the right way. Seemed like Armin’s words earlier were no exaggeration; these were the arms of a champion with no doubt. 

The side of Levi’s face was pressed against Eren’s chest which didn’t make it hard to smell his cologne: the same strong, masculine, musky scent that was on the hoodie. It was even more intense from this close, not to mention that being this pressed up against Eren and having his large, strong arms around him (even if he fought against it) gave the whole situation a very different sensation. 

One that Levi couldn’t quite put in words. 

It made his heart flutter, made him lean into the embrace ever so lightly, almost longingly. Eren was right; it definitely had been a while since the last time someone held him this way. It was a good feeling overall, no question. Maybe Eren just wasn’t the person he wanted to experience this feeling with. And maybe Levi didn’t want to admit that Eren was right next to everyone.

It didn’t take long for the raven to figure out he had absolutely no choice. Since Eren didn’t let go even after Levi punching him, he was trapped in Eren’s arms until the brat would decide to release him again, so, to make it easier for himself, he decided to just sit it out until Eren would have enough. He didn’t like it but he didn’t seem to entirely hate it either. Levi looked bored as always, his hands rested on his lap as he stared at the table in silence. 

Maybe it wasn’t the worst thing in the world to receive a hug, after all. 

The brunet hummed, getting comfortable there with Levi in his arms. Different than Levi, he seemed to enjoy the hug. To what extent, that only Eren knew. 

A few long, calm moments later, Eren began loosening his grip and freeing the male in his arms. “Calm?” His voice was soft, his tone gentle and calm. 

“As ever,” Levi answered, equally as calm. 

Readjusting Levi’s hair and glancing down at him, Eren just smiled with purity and utter contentment and turned to finish his food. Neither of them said anything more and the table fell into silence. Hanji and Armin on the other side where whispering to each other, something Levi couldn’t make out from that distance, so he drank some of his coffee and looked around the bakery again. 

That Eren guy was weird in Levi’s eyes. He didn’t take his threats serious and didn’t listen to what he was saying- something not many people dared to do, especially not strangers. It made him think... Either Eren seriously was not affected or intimidated by any of Levi’s threats like the day before or he wasn’t being serious enough. Maybe Levi had to be even more rough and demanding next time. 

“Oh my God!” Hanji broke the silence in a happy tone and pulled away from Armin to get out her phone, “I got a text from Moblit and I totally forgot to answer him. He’s surely already worried sick where I am.” She chuckled and began typing in her phone, shaking her head as if scolding herself for it. 

Levi glanced up, “he’s probably still sleeping so don’t expect an answer anytime soon. Time zones and all.” 

At that, Hanji just hummed to let Levi know she heard him and quickly finished her message to send it. 

“Who’s Moblit?” Armin questioned, half curious and half confused. 

“Moblit is- after Levi- my best friend! We’ve never been this far away from each other before and I miss him so much!” The brunette put her phone down and leaned her head on Armin’s shoulder, a smile dancing on her lips as she closed her eyes. “And since we don’t have a fix date when we will be back home, I miss him even more. But it’s not the first time we’re gone for very long so..” she shrugged lightly. 

“You don’t have a fix date when you will be back?” Eren repeated and faced Levi, the corners of his lips daring to curl up into a grin. 

“No.” Levi stated, simple as ever.

“That tempts to get interesting,” the youth mumbled and finished the last bite of his food. 

“Whatever,” Levi muttered, not having heard what Eren said, and looked up at everyone, “we should get going. The faster we’re out here, the sooner we can go separate ways. That and the air in here is stuffy, it’s disgusting.” There were many people sitting in the bakery and it was warm which made it no wonder. Levi found it uncomfortable in a very suffocated and crowded way. 

“Sure, let’s go!” Hanji exclaimed as she jumped up from her chair to put on her coat and grabbed her phone from the table. The others did the same and it didn’t take long until they were outside in the freezing cold once again. 

Hanji clung to Armin when the wind blew in attempts to shield her face from it and get some warmth from him in return while Levi, on the other hand, made sure he kept a safe and proper distance to Eren. The brat might’ve caught him off guard once or twice but Levi wouldn’t let that happen again by making sure he kept him as far away from himself as even possible. The less interaction, the better. 

Their first destination, the Berlin Wall, was only across the street.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if anyone actually made it this far- thank you so much for reading! id love to hear what you think of it!!
> 
> my tumblr


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> welp,, took me a while again because i had to finish a shit ton for uni first. still got some things to do but i wanted to finally post this chapter so i can work for uni without feeling bad lol (or is it the other way around? o.O)
> 
> anyway, please enjoy this chapter!! <33

The icy wind blew with no mercy, making it quite hard to stop the shivering and clattering of teeth. Hanji gripped Armin close and tight to stay near him while she studied the wall they were walking along. It wasn’t just a wall, there were countless paintings over it, each one different and telling an other story. Taking in the paintings on the huge wall was like getting a story told in the most mesmerizing and captivating way. Hanji was awestruck, to say the least. 

Stories of segregation, oppression, of expression and love and, most importantly, of freedom. The paintings expressed it all in such a wonderful inspiring style. Walking along such an historical monument filled Hanji with pride and honor. At this point, not even the cold wind blowing through her clothes nor the snowflakes entangling with her hair were bothering anymore, and Hanji’s gaze stayed focused on the wall. 

“This one is called ‘Vaterland’.” Armin would start explaining whenever they stopped at a painting Hanji found particularly interesting. “It was painted to honor the 50th anniversary of the ‘Kristallnacht’.” The blond knew a lot about German history, it was shown by the way he explained and elaborated things. Even if he couldn’t answer every question Hanji had in detail, he was trying his best to please her thirst for knowledge and Hanji was grateful for that. 

She took many pictures of the wall but also of themselves in front of it, wanting to keep the memory. She posed and mimicked in front of her phone. Eren joined, posing and goofing around with her in a playful manner while Armin was still rather shy and just smiled timidly all the time. Contrary to their joy, Levi was scowling and glared at the phone in annoyance. Hanji was taking too many pictures again and he didn’t like how they were all squished together to be on them. Eren’s hands were touching him too much for his liking. 

“ _ Try _ not to look grumpy in one picture!” Hanji demanded, the phone still in the air, “c’mon. You don’t need to smile but don’t look like you’ve just killed someone, at very least!” 

Hanji was shouting and was drawing too much attention on them yet again which annoyed Levi only more. How was he supposed to look normal with these weirdos by his side? It was awkward and embarrassing, more so on the streets of a foreign country. Usually, Levi wouldn’t care but Hanji was overdoing it, like always, and it gave him headaches. 

For the sake of stopping this photo session soon, he relaxed his face just enough to look bored instead of angry and stared at the camera, forcing himself to stay like that and let himself get pulled and squeezed until Hanji lowered the phone to take a look at her creations. “Ohh.. They’re all so beautiful!” She gushed happily while swiping across the screen several times. The three waited for Hanji to be done doing whatever she was doing before continuing their walk. 

The brunette entangled her arm with Armin’s once again and walked at the front with him. He explained a few more things he knew to her and motioned at the paintings as he did. While the two were talking about the paintings, Levi nuzzled the lower half of his face into his coat for warmth. He should’ve at least taken a scarf with him because the cold was really getting the best of him. Though, he had to admit, Eren’s sweater was somehow warming him more than the shirt he wore before. So it didn’t only have negative sides. 

“You know,” Eren spoke and flashed Levi a smile, “if you want to know something, you can ask me too. I don’t know nearly as much as Armin but I still remember a few things from school.” 

“Tsk.” Levi narrowed his eyes up at the tall brunet, “n-not interested.” He muttered with a tremble in his voice as he shoved his hands deep into his pockets to keep them from freezing. Judging from the expression on Eren’s face, he seemed to notice but Levi paid him no mind and just continued walking. 

Usually, winter wasn’t that much of a big struggle for Levi to handle but the winter in Germany was by far different than the one he was used to in America. The temperature was so much lower and the continuous frosty gusts of wind weren’t exactly making it easier to endure the weather. At least it wasn’t snowing too hard, Levi thought, he didn’t need that on top of all. 

To his surprise, he was forced to stop walking by something around his neck and looked down to see what it was. There were Eren’s hands holding a black scarf on each side of Levi and wrapping it around his neck with slow and gentle movements, making the back of his fingers brush against Levi’s jaw every now and then. They were cold to the touch, still warmer than Levi’s own, though. It made shivers run down his spine. 

“You’re freezing pretty bad, old man, huh? This will keep you warm.” The youth smiled, his face radiating comfort and sympathy and warmth. 

What on earth- did this brat think Levi was depending on his help? That he couldn’t take care of himself? Levi didn’t need someone like Eren to give him a sweater or scarf or whatever. He snarled, the coldness making his voice shiver slightly yet again, making it hard to speak up, “oi... I.. I don’t want your sh-shitty scarf.” 

However, Eren didn’t listen and adjusted the scarf just right for Levi to not feel even the tiniest bit of wind hitting his neck. The fabric was slowly warming his bitterly cold skin, Levi could feel it getting better with each moment- that didn’t change the fact that he didn’t want Eren’s scarf. He didn’t like the idea of having more from Eren on himself. So, he reached up to unwrap it, wouldn’t there have been Eren’s hands stopping him. 

The brunet cupped both of the smaller, cold hands in his own and rubbed them. “God, your hands feel like ice. And you don’t wanna wear a scarf? Who are you kidding.” Eren shook his head in an almost scolding manner, keeping hold of Levi’s hands, rubbing them, even while the other was trying to pull them away. 

“Let go,” Levi hissed and Eren just smiled, draping one arm around the shorter male and tucking him close to his side. “Oi- Fuck off already!” 

“What’s wrong, guys?” Armin questioned when he noticed that Hanji was no longer by his side and heard Levi raising his voice. He turned around to see Levi in Eren’s arm and Hanji eyeing them in silence. From where he stood, he could also see Hanji taking a picture of the two without them noticing. 

“Nothing is wrong. Levi was cold so I gave him my scarf, no big deal.” Eren dismissed rather quickly and stepped closer to his friends, taking Levi with him in return. “Tch..” Levi glared up at the brunet, hiding the clattering of his teeth behind the scarf. His cheeks and the tip of his nose and ears turned into a soft, pink color. 

Hanji grinned and let her phone slide back into her pocket so she could throw her arms around the blond’s arm. “How generous of you. But aren’t you gonna freeze like that?” 

Eren shook his head, “I’m used to the cold here so it’s not that much of a big deal to me.” 

“Sweet.” Hanji chirped and hooked an arm into Eren’s as well so they were all walking in one line instead of two. That way, she had warmth from both sides and could snuggle herself between the two males. 

Levi, on the other hand, was more or less being dragged along. He didn’t at all seem to like the closeness to Eren and fought against it the best he could. The youth’s grip on him was gentle yet rather firm, not giving Levi the chance to escape. Even if Eren had good intentions, Levi hated the position he found himself in and only wanted to get far, far away from him. It was unbelievable how Eren could just hold him in place like it was nothing, like Levi wasn’t fighting against it. Damn this brat and his strength. 

“Levi doesn’t look like it but he‘s a very passionate cuddler,” Hanji randomly said, her gaze flicking up at the tall brunet by her side, a smirk forming on her lips. 

Eren looked a little confused, “a ‘cuddler’?” 

“Yep. He loves cuddling!” 

“Like hell!” Levi snapped in irritation and finally managed to make Eren stop and get his arm off. He faced the much taller male with an expression filled with rage, managing to keep his voice steadfast this time. Maybe the scarf  _ was _ helping to keep him warm. “What’re you even doing? Just stay away from me already! It’s not so hard to understand, is it? Why are you even touching me all the time? It doesn’t make sense! Stop that bullshit already!”

“Oh, but darling. I thought we were soulmates!” Eren responded in a teasing, mocking way and stuck out his lower lip in a pout. “How will I ever live without you?” 

Levi growled- it was getting too much with Eren. This boy was getting too far ahead of himself and it was costing Levi all the nerves he had left. Hell, and he thought Hanji was a hassle to handle. “That’s it!” The raven clenched his fists tightly and took a step closer to Eren when he heard his phone ringing from his pocket. 

Furious and blinded by anger, Levi answered the phone without checking who it was and shouted an aggressive “what?!” into it, wanting whoever it was to keep it short since he still needed to take care of Eren’s ass. 

However, his anger was immediately replaced by surprise and shock when he heard a soft whimper coming from the other end. Without giving Eren or the others a second glance, Levi left the three to have a few minutes in silence. 

“...Do you think he’s alright?” Armin questioned as they watched Levi talking on the phone from afar, feeling somewhat nervous. 

Hanji assured them quickly and smiled, “no worries. I bet he’ll be back in a minute.” Then she faced Eren and pushed up her glasses, “are you alright, though?” 

“Yeah,” Eren grinned, biting his lower lip, his eyes staying focused on Levi, “did you see the fire in his eyes?  _ Scheiße _ , verdammt, ist das heiß...” 

Hanji saw the way Eren eyed her friend like he was a piece of juicy meat and nudged him, wiggling her eyebrows playfully, “you like him, don’t you?” 

“I’m honestly so, so sorry.” Levi ran a hand through his hair in distress, “I didn’t expect you to call at this time and this Eren guy-“

“Levi,” the female voice on the phone scolded, “you can’t just answer a call like that, no matter what just happened. You scared Izzy.”

“I know, I know... Can you give her to me? Let me talk to her.” 

There was a sigh on the phone before the small sniffles got louder, which meant the phone was now with Isabel. “Hey, pumpkin. I’m sorry I scared you, I really didn’t mean to be scary. Daddy is really sorry.” He spoke, soft and tender. 

“Da-Daddy... had a bad dream..” The girl sniffled into the phone, “I want daddy...”

“Shh.. it’s okay. I’m here. There’s nothing you have to be scared of because daddy will be there to protect you all the time. Alright? I love you so much, pumpkin.” The raven murmured, keeping his voice calm and totally forgetting about Eren at the moment. All of his attention was on his daughter only. 

“Love you too, daddy..” Isabel spoke in her quiet voice. 

“Now lay down with mommy and sleep, okay? It’s already late. How about you call me in the morning again before you go to nursery school? Hm?” 

There was another sniffle, “okay, daddy...” 

“That’s my girl. Sleep well.” He murmured into the phone, hearing that Isabel stopped crying and handing the phone to her mother who spoke up next. “What even made you this angry to begin with?”

Levi sighed deeply and reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose. “Just some brats Hanji befriended. One of them is a damned pain in my ass and he’s not stopping to annoy the hell out of me. I feel like he’s using every opportunity he gets to make me angry.” 

“Hmm..” the redhead hummed softly, letting Isabel sleep on her chest and patting her head. “Then don’t give him the chance to do that?” She suggested while keeping her voice quiet, “maybe try to hold yourself back. If he doesn’t get what he wants, as you say, I think he’s more likely to drop the matter. He’ll get bored of it, y’know?”

And that was exactly why Petra was the perfect person to talk with when it came to finding a solution. Her way of thinking was so different from Levi’s. While Levi would use violence to force his way through the problem, Petra was more collected and preferred more peaceful approaches. She always thought two steps ahead and knew how to handle difficult situations. 

She’s always been like that; when they first met, when they dated, got married, had a child, and even when they got divorced. She was the rational yet optimistic one and was a really, really good influence on Levi. He got on the right path only thanks to her and he felt like he could never make up for it. Petra was just too good. 

“I could try it.” The raven agreed and glanced over at Hanji and the brats for a moment, to make sure she was still in sight. “I’m not gonna keep you awake longer than necessary. Go to sleep.” 

“Alright. And you try to have some fun, it’ll be fine. I’ll give you a call in the morning.” 

“Sounds good. And Petra.. thank you.”

“Not for that,” the smile was obvious in her tone, then came a yawn, “good night.”

“Sleep well.” Levi hung up and put the phone back into his pocket, shivering as he shoved his hands back in there as well. They were so cold, he barely felt them anymore. 

Closing his eyes for a good, long moment, Levi gathered himself. All he had to do was to ignore Eren’s comments- nothing easy, but he would do it. Otherwise he’d lose his mind. 

“Leviiiii!! Are you done? Come on, come over here!” Hanji’s voice was loud and made the male exhale before turning around and walking over to the three who stood in front of a painting of two male figures kissing. It made Levi cringe but he shook his head and didn’t pay much mind to it as he faced the brunette. “Took you long enough. Now come here so we can take the picture!” 

Hanji dragged him into the middle so Levi was standing between her and Eren, Armin on her other side. A stranger was standing in front of them with Hanji’s phone held up to shoot the picture. The man counted down from three while everyone (apart from Levi) was smiling into the camera and took the picture. 

“Oh, please do another one! Actually, you can take several pictures, I’m gonna choose a good one later.” Hanji told the man and hugged Armin for the next picture who returned the gesture and looked up at the taller woman with a smile. 

Eren threw an arm around Levi as well and grinned into the camera. Levi was about to snap at him again but he remembered Petra’s words and just exhaled while he stared at the man blankly. If he didn’t react to what Eren said or did, it would spare him a lot of trouble and maybe Eren would really get bored of it and stop his silly, little act. 

Suddenly, there came a high pitched, muffled squeal from beside them. When Levi turned over to see what happened, his eyes widened. Hanji was absolutely dominating the poor blond. Her hands were on each side of his face, squishing his cheeks while her lips were devouring Armin’s in passion. His face was as red as a tomato, his hands somewhere midair in distress and his eyes shot wide open. 

Hanji parted away slightly, leaving just enough space between them to breathe and look into Armin’s eyes. Their chopped breaths came out in white puffs, hitting each other’s face, as Hanji’s expression softened and her thumbs caressed Armin’s now warm cheeks. The boy panted, his eyes as wide as saucers, and stared into Hanji’s big brown ones in utter shock. However, her expression remained relaxed as she leaned closer once again to leave another soft peck on Armin’s lips. 

It seemed to reduce the intensity of Armin’s little anxiety attack and let him lower his hands to rest on each side of Hanji’s hips. His eyes flicked down to her lips and he squeezed her hips, almost in anticipation. This time, he was the one who leaned closer to catch Hanji’s lips in another long, passionate kiss which the brunette reciprocated fully. 

Levi was left dumbfounded and facepalmed, slapping his palm hard against his forehead while clenching his teeth. Calm, he had to breathe. He had to stay composed and not lash out on Hanji for doing something this stupid. What was she thinking to just kiss the boy when she only knew him for one day? What was going on in her head? Levi wished he knew, just so he could try to understand- and  _ then _ beat her up. 

“Tch.” The raven reached out his hand with the intention to yank Hanji by her coat, only to have someone grabbing Levi’s hand midway and spinning the short male around. Blinking in confusion, he found himself in Eren’s arms with him bending them over slightly. Levi was forced to lean backwards with how close Eren was and, as the result, had no steady ground under his feet. And fearing he might fall back if Eren decided to let go of him out of the blue (of course only to annoy him more), Levi had to clutch onto the youth’s jacket tightly which, unfortunately for Levi, made Eren lean closer towards his face. 

“Hello, beautiful man.” Eren purred in his soft tone and dared to lean even closer, letting their faces be separated by mere, dangerous inches. “How about we follow their example, huh? Come here, give me a little smooch.”

The kissing noises Eren was making made Levi snap out of his momentary trance. His brows furrowed, his gaze filled with rage. If this Eren even dared to think about doing anything even close to what Hanji was doing to Armin, Levi would rip him into pieces with no mercy.  _ Kissing?! _ Has he lost his mind?! Roughly, Levi used all of his strength to push Eren off of him. Falling wasn’t nearly as bad as having Eren this close to his face. 

Thanks to that, Levi lost his balance and Eren’s grip on him and fell back to the ground. He huffed when he landed and quickly got back up on his feet to avoid his pants to soak the dirt- lucky for him his coat covered his behind so Levi didn’t look like he just pissed himself. The angry man brushed off the mud and dirt from his coat as well as he could while he cursed under his breath. 

“Levi? Is everything alright? Did you hurt yourself?” Hanji questioned in surprise and turned towards her friend to see if he was hurt. “The ground is really slippery, you need to be more careful.” 

Instantly, Levi whipped his gaze up at the woman and glared into her eyes. “The hell are you doing?!” He growled while forcing his tone to be low and quiet to not make a scene and draw any unnecessary attention from the people around them. He didn’t need nosy people gawking at them but, at the same time, he was boiling with rage, seething. 

“Hm? What do you mean?” The brunette questioned in confusion, “I wanna know if you’re alright, that’s all-“

“Why’re you kissing that brat?!” A sharp hiss came from Levi. It made honestly no sense to him. Why would someone kiss a person when knowing them for only a day? He couldn’t comprehend what was going on in Hanji’s mind. Like, where was her mind at? What was the point of kissing the boy? It was way too early to talk about love and all that bullshit. 

Hanji just smiled and shrugged, “sometimes, your heart takes over and you do things you can’t explain.” Her gaze softened as she shoved her hands into her pockets and averted her gaze. “It’s the first time I feel this way. It’s just... I feel so alive around Armin, like we’re soulmates of some sort!”

“Hanji, you’ve said that about a ball of yarn once.” Levi deadpanned. 

“But this time it’s different!” She insisted, pouting, “it’s real, I can feel it!” It made Levi shake his head yet again. 

“You know what Moblit told me once? He said that if you meet the right person, your  _ soulmate _ , your whole body and mind make a turn. You feel different around them than anybody else, you feel connected and so close to each other from the very first moment. You feel like you’ve known this person your whole life. Moblit said that once your soulmate comes crashing into your life, nothing will be the same. Everything changes in a heartbeat and it will soften even the toughest heart.” Hanji beamed and took Levi’s hand for emphasis, “Moblit said it to me all these years ago and I only now realize what he meant with it!” 

“Tch..” Levi sunk his head into his hand and breathed deeply, then lifted his head again to look up at the brunette. The way she was so determined and set on Moblit’s words, the way every single word she said was filled with passion and belief; it made his heart sting with a bittersweet sympathy Levi knew all too well. His heart ached for his unknowing friend, the sight- the whole situation was unbearable to him. 

“I can call Moblit and he will tell you the same! He’s gonna explain it to you.” At Hanji’s suggestion, Levi was quick to stop her hand from reaching for her phone and stared off somewhere else. 

“No,” he declined quickly. It was too much and he had to put a stop before it got out of control. He faced her again and stared into her eyes, “I believe you. No need to bother anyone with this. Especially not when everyone at home is sleeping now, huh? I just..” a sigh, “want you to be careful because I don’t want you to get hurt.” 

Hanji squeezed her friend’s hand and gave him a nod, “I appreciate your care. And I promise you, I will be careful.”

“That brat better be careful too or else I’m gonna rearrange his guts,” Levi hissed and shot the blond in question a glare. The smile didn’t leave Hanji’s lips even after his threat, and she soon just pulled her friend into a loving hug and gave him a soft hum in response. 

Levi was always like that; extremely protective of the handful of people he held close, his friends- his family. Isabel, Petra, Erwin, Mike, even Auro to a generous extent. However, it was a whole different story with Hanji all together. That woman encountered hellfire with open eyes, suffered, lost her will to live, her strength, her health. She turned into a miserable wreck and fell into a throat-deep hole of despair and anguish. It was a really tough time for her and it took a lot of blood, sweat and tears building Hanji up to get her back to her old self (or as close as she could get to that).

Hanji made a lot of progress in the past few years and Levi didn’t want her to fall again, not if he could avoid it. He would catch her no matter what and help her to keep standing and to stay strong. He would be there for her and protect her, unaffected by any costs and fearless of any battles. “Fine...” The raven eventually muttered and raised his arms to return Hanji’s embrace — something that happened only rarely in public — sighing through his nose, “I’ll still keep an eye on that brat, though.”

In Levi’s eyes, Armin wasn’t even the issue. The boy made a very good impression and seemed to be responsible and trustworthy. Eren, on the other hand, was more of a bête noire. But for the sake of Hanji, he would learn to deal with him because he wouldn’t feel comfortable with leaving Armin and her alone yet. He had to be sure the youth wouldn’t play with her feelings or trigger old conflicts and reopen the wounds that took so long to heal. Nobody other than Hanji and him knew of what went through Hanji’s head, and he couldn’t trust anyone with her yet. It was too early and too much of an intimate, delicate matter. 

“As long as you don’t scare him to death.” Hanji broke the hug and shot her friend a cheeky grin, “you have such a big heart, Levi, why don’t you make room for someone else in there?”

Confusion took over Levi’s features, his eyes narrowed as though he was trying to look into Hanji’s head for the answer. “What do you mean, Shit Glasses?” 

The woman chuckled and took a hold of Levi’s hand to walk with him. A vague “who knows” is all that Levi got as an answer, followed by a wink. It confused him only more, so he decided to just leave the matter be since it wasn’t the first time Hanji made comments he couldn’t decipher. 

He looked over to see a frightened Armin staring down at his shoes. The poor boy only looked up when Hanji reached out her free hand to lift his face and stroked back his hair. “Levi won’t actually hurt you, he’s just trying to scare you.” 

“Ah... if you say so.” The blond muttered, stealing a glance at Levi who glared right back at him in return. His expression showed that he wasn’t just ‘trying’ to scare Armin; his threat was very much serious. And Armin looked like he understood it, judging by his pale face. 

“Ey, guys.” Eren cut in with his phone in hand, “I’ve rented us a car. I think it’s more fun to get a view of Berlin. And I wouldn’t want grandpa to get a stroke when he sees the train stations.”

Levi growled at him in response. He remembered Petra’s words- Eren will stop being a pain if Levi stops giving him much of a reaction. He’d have to get used to not snap back at him, but anything to make him stop. So Levi exhaled and closed his eyes, counted to five before opening them again. It wasn’t even that hard. 

“Good idea!” Hanji agreed almost immediately, “where’s the car?” 

Eren stared down at his phone before looking around. With a little hum, he pointed at their left side and said, “this way. Not very far- it’s a blue  _ Ford Focus _ . I think I can see it from here.” 

“What are we still doing here then? Let’s go!” Hanji began following Eren who lead everyone to the car. It had a bright blue color, so it wasn’t very hard to spot it from afar. 

Once they stood in front of it, Eren did a few things on his phone before they were able to open the doors and get inside. Hanji pushed Armin onto the backseat and quickly got in as well so she could close the door without giving Levi the chance to choose where he’d sit. Grinning, she just pointed at the passenger seat at the front and turned away to cuddle up with Armin. 

Levi sighed loudly and decided to just get done with it as he swung the door open and took a seat at the front. He buckled up and folded his arms over his chest without losing a word while Eren sat behind the steering wheel and reached for the keys inside the small cabinet. Starting the car and turning on the heater, Eren soon pulled out of the parking spot, the radio filling the car with low background music. 

Eren was the first to break the silence, “how about-” he barely began before he was already interrupted by the ringing of his phone. With his eyes still on the street, he fiddled his way into his pocket and pulled the ringing device out. 

“Hallo?” He spoke while taking a turn right, holding the phone against his ear with one hand. “Ja, Annem. Evet. Ja, hab’ ich.  _ Ja-ha _ . Mhm. Ja, okay.” Eren took another turn at the next crossing and hummed, “tamam, ich- Nein. Mit Armin und zwei anderen. Ja, Anne.” 

Levi was staring in front of them at the street with caution. Eren was on the phone and was distracted, the ground was frozen- Levi was just keeping an eye out in case things got out of control while Eren was talking so he could intervene when needed. He’d prefer not to peg out just yet, he had a child to take care of. Levi didn’t move a muscle, focused on the street and Eren’s skilled hands moving the wheel. In case he needed to reach in and keep them from crashing into a tree, Levi was ready to do. 

A few more ‘ja’s and ‘nein’s later, Eren finally managed to hang up and pushed his phone back into the pocket of his jacket, only to start fishing for something else in his pockets, checking the right ones first before moving to the left ones and back to the right ones. 

“Oi, now keep your damn hands on the wheel already!” Levi scolded with a low hiss and suddenly gasped when they came to an abrupt stop and Eren unbuckled himself. “One second,” Eren dismissed without giving anyone the chance to talk back and left the car to get into a strange store they stopped in front of. From what Levi could see, it looked like a pharmacy. 

While Eren was gone, Levi shot a glance back at Hanji and Armin to make sure they were alright and still living. This boy was insane and would get them all killed one day, Levi was sure of it. Just a minute later, Eren came back with a bottle of water and some medications and sat down again. The boy managed to screw open the lid and pop out some pill from a little box at the same time before he swallowed it, drinking lots of water afterwards. 

When he was done, Eren sighed softly and turned around to see Levi glaring at him. He gave him an innocent smile and scratched his cheek. “I forgot my allergy pills. Sorry for the eh.. hectic?” There was a little nervousness in his voice which Eren tried to cover up with a laugh. 

Levi didn’t buy it, Eren was acting too strange for just forgetting allergy pills, wasn’t he? The brat was hiding something. Nevertheless, Levi accepted the fact that it was none of his business and he was in no position to pressure or doubt Eren. “Suicidal bastard. If you wanna die so bad, don’t pull others into it!” The raven scolded, pinching Eren’s ear which made Eren whimper softly. 

“Au! That hurts!” He pulled Levi’s hand away as suddenly his lips curled up into a smirk. “I see, you like it rough.” 

Annoyance took over Levi’s features, his hand coming back to rest on his lap and his eyes moving back at the front. “Disgusting,” was his only reply, though he stayed calm this time. If he didn’t and would give in to Eren by snarling at and arguing with him all the time, it would never come to an end. A wise man changes his mind, a fool never will. 

Eren, however, only laughed and didn’t say much more about it. They were back on the streets and driving across the big city Eren showed them. Armin took over the talking since he was much better at history and Eren had to focus on the streets anyway. It was an unusual way of sightseeing, to just drive past everything, but probably the best they could get in the winter. 

While Levi was quietly looking out of the window and listening to Armin’s little history lesson, it wasn’t hard to notice the many, many construction sites they passed. He began counting them but stopped once he lost track around twenty. It was actually such a shame for the people who lived in Berlin- their whole city was one big construction site which will as likely as not be ever finished. That was what Levi called wasted potential of a beautiful city, because he believed Berlin could look so much better. 

Hours quickly passed like that and the four found themselves in a “Döner-Restaurant” Eren suggested in the late afternoon. They already ordered and were waiting for their food. Hanji, Armin and Eren were chatting about random things while Levi, as always, was the silent one at the table. He was listening without saying much and leaned back calmly. 

“I couldn’t walk after that for a week but it was more than worth it!” Eren spoke about the one time he and his siblings used the big stairs in their building as a slide with the help of styrofoam they got from some delivery his mother made. They were still kids back then. It ended with Eren losing the thing midway, falling the rest of the stairs and slamming against the wall. In whichever stupid way Eren thought something dumb like that was worth getting hurt, Levi would never understand. 

The raven pulled his attention away from the conversation when his phone rang and got it out of his pocket. Seeing that it was Petra, he stood up without a word and walked into the customer bathroom to have more privacy. He swiped across his display to answer the call and held the phone against his ear. “Hello?” 

“Daddy! Daddy!” The voice exclaimed at the other end of the phone. “Snoo gone! All gone!” 

Levi had a small, somewhat amused smile on his lips. Compared to the quite long day he had, hearing his daughter being her precious, childish self was really refreshing. “Oh no,” he mumbled in return, “how unfortunate. But I’m sure the snow is gonna come back soon again, then you can play lots.” 

“Uh huh!” The girl giggled and added, “mommy wanna talk!” 

Some rustling later, Petra’s voice could be heard. “Hi, Levi. How’s it going?”

“Pretty okay, I think.” The raven ran a hand through his hair and glanced at the mirror. It needed some proper cleaning, just like the sink. There was water and soap all over the place and paper towels spread pretty much everywhere. Levi cringed. 

“That’s good,” the woman said with an obvious smile on her lips, “and... What about Eren?” 

“Oh, don’t start with him. That brat’s a damned pain in my ass.” Levi pinched the bridge of his nose, “he’s annoying the living crap outta me and is so oblivious of it? Like, he  _ keeps  _ pushing it and I’m so done with it, I’m sick of it.” 

“Aw, c’mon. He doesn’t seem like that much of a bad guy,” Petra argued, “he looks so cute and innocent, if you ask me. Maybe you should give him a try?” 

“The hell?” Levi was confused- why would Petra say something like that? “Give what a try, Petra? That guy? You don’t possibly think he’s gay- shit.” Levi groaned in annoyance, “now I’ve got a big problem. Damn it.” 

“What do you mean? What’s wrong with being attracted to the same gender? There’s nothing wrong with it, you know?” 

“No, there’s everything wrong with it.” Levi hissed, “I’m  _ not  _ gay, for fuck’s sake. Especially not for someone who’s a sole annoyance. How disgusting. Tch.”

“Seriously?” Petra’s voice dropped, the disappointment evident in her tone, “I didn’t expect you to say such things and I don’t like your way of thinking.. I can’t and surely won’t force you into anything, so don’t worry, but you should work on... that attitude. Imagine how much it’d hurt Izzy if she ever decided to have a girlfriend. Would you tell her the same?” 

Levi fell quiet at that and glared at the wall while Petra said all that. He never was a fan of same sex relationships and it wouldn’t just change because he met some brat who might be gay and deprived. To him, there was a man and there was a woman, these would come together, have kids, and so on and so forth. But two people of the same gender? That couldn’t work. Levi couldn’t see anything right with this, it was disgusting in his eyes. How could people do something like that? Just nasty. 

“I would,” the male answered eventually, his voice rather stern, “because that’s not a future I want for my child.” 

“Wow... Well, then I really hope for you that this won’t happen. Because God help me if you ever dared to hurt my daughter in any way.” Without giving Levi the chance to respond, Petra already hung up and Levi stood there for a moment longer, his lips agape, as if about to say something. He blinked a few times, then lowered his phone and stared at the display. 

What was wrong with Petra? Was she on her period or something? Did she wake up in a bad mood? How could she say all these things? Gay? Seriously? How could she want something that was so frowned upon for their daughter? Isabel only deserved the best, and being gay definitely wasn’t part of it. Levi wanted her to have a good life and live happily, which would be very hard with a girlfriend. That couldn’t even work and couldn’t end well in any way. There weren’t two different genders for no reason. 

“Tch. Fucking shit.” This was all Eren’s fault- if he only stopped getting on Levi’s nerves, nothing of this would’ve happened. Now Petra was mad at him which made Levi mad in return. But he stood his ground and wouldn’t change his opinion only to make up with Petra. He said what had to be said, spoke his mind, and he wouldn’t take back his words. Petra had to respect how he felt. 

She would at some point anyway. Levi was as much of a parent to Isabel as Petra, so as her father, he had every right to decide what was the best for her. And he would make sure Isabel got what would be the best for her- it was too early to think about that anyway. Until Isabel was old enough, they should’ve solved this. 

Levi’s phone vibrated and he looked down at it, thinking that Petra might’ve found something else to tell him about how wrong he was. Instead, he saw a completely different notification. 

_ Shitty Glasses added you to the group “Grumpy & his Oddballs ٩( 'ω' )و”  _

Quite confused, Levi decided to take a look at this strange group. The icon was a picture of Hanji, Levi, Eren and Armin in front of the Berlin Wall- before Hanji kissed Armin and things escalated. There were also two new phone numbers Levi didn’t know- Eren and Armin for sure. Just then Levi’s phone began vibrating nonstop and he could see that Hanji was sending all the pictures she took that day into the group. There were many, so Levi decided to turn off his phone and dropped it back into his pocket. 

It would shut down on its own anyway with how many pictures Hanji was sending, he was just shortening the process to save his phone. Petra surely wouldn’t call anytime soon and everything else wasn’t important enough to worry about. He could look at the pictures later if he liked to, not that he was dying to see them anyway. Because, really, he wasn’t. 

With a very heavy sigh, Levi exited the bathroom and walked back over to their table where he took a seat quietly. He could see that their food arrived and had to admit, it looked pretty good. The plate had a lot of meat on it, which Levi assumed was the ‘Döner-meat’, and was topped with salad, tomatoes, onions and different sauces. He could also see fries underneath all of it. It didn’t smell bad either. 

“Oh, finally you’re back. I almost feared you’re constipated again.” Hanji hummed casually while taking pictures of their plates. 

“Tch.” Levi frowned at her, “not as constipated as your brain.” 

Hanji only laughed and grabbed her fork so she could dig in. Now that she stopped taking pictures, the others began eating as well. The raven was frowning even while eating, the whole matter with Petra and Eren just made him so mad. It was such a big bother in his mind at the moment that he didn’t notice someone was talking to him until he felt a hand on his back and looked up. 

“Is everything alright?” Eren questioned with a comforting, soft smile on his lips. “You look stressed,” the boy observed easily, the hand on Levi’s back giving him a short rub before being pulled back again. 

Levi narrowed his eyes up at the brunet and was glad that he took his hand back on his own, otherwise he would’ve ripped it off. “I’m not. Keep your hands to yourself.” His words were harsh just like his tone- because Levi had to make Eren understand that he wasn’t in any possible way interested to build whatever kind of relationship Eren thought they could have. He had to keep him at a distance. 

Eren didn’t argue this time and turned away from Levi quietly to eat his food, which Levi was glad of. The less they talked, the better. 

“If you ask me, we’ve got some really awesome pictures today. I’ve sent them into the group- oh, and I’ve sent some to Petra, Erwin and Mike earlier too.” Hanji didn’t even swallow before she talked, and it made Levi cringe hard. 

“Manners,” he scolded simply as he ate his food without giving much more attention to what Hanji was talking about. He was used to it and wasn’t very bothered about it. She did what she did, and as long as Levi wasn’t naked on these pictures, he didn’t care much. 

By the time they finished and paid for the food, a heavy snowstorm swept across the streets. Chairs and tables outside were blown across the streets but nobody put in the effort to go and fetch them, which was understandable. Nobody would voluntarily step a foot outside at the moment. 

“Oh, no.” Levi could hear Hanji complain softly, “how are we gonna make it back to the hotel like that? Is it far from here?”

“It actually is. I don’t think we can drive back.” Eren observed, his gaze staying outside for some longer. 

“Just great,” Levi exhaled deeply and folded his arms over his chest, “as if I needed more shit right now.” 

The brunet turned to face Levi, “it’s not that bad, old man. Don’t always be so negative.” He smiled, “we can go over to my place and stay there until the weather gets better. It’s not very far from here and-“

“No.” Levi interrupted in a serious tone and glared up at the youth. “I’d rather freeze to death.” 

“Hah?! Are you crazy?!” Hanji suddenly exclaimed, “we’re going over to Eren’s place. You can stay here and freeze to death if you like but I need a blanket and at least five pillows.” 

The raven narrowed his eyes when he saw how Hanji stood up and put on her coat and hat. “Oi. Sit your ass back down, Shit Glasses.” He warned. 

“Nope. We’re going with Eren. You’re coming with us too. Also, it’s pretty rude to turn down someone’s invitation.” The others stood up as well and threw on their jackets while Levi watched them with a dark frown. Hanji needed to get her ass kicked for that. 

“Come on. You don’t have to stay for long, just until the storm is over.” Eren smiled and motioned for Levi to get up and follow them, “come, let’s go.” 

Levi’s gaze moved up at Eren. “Tch..” Cursing under his breath, Levi dragged himself up and snatched his coat from the chair. “You’re gonna pay for that, Zoe.” He growled and reluctantly followed the others outside. Levi couldn’t let Hanji go with them alone, and since she wasn’t listening, he had to go with her. 

The heavy wind blew as the door was opened and the four stepped outside. They held each other for safety while Eren led the way. This time, Levi didn’t complain about the touching because he knew he’d get blown away if they didn’t hold each other. It was really hard to walk against the wind like that. 

It took them about fifteen minutes in the bitter cold until they arrived at an apartment complex and Eren rang the door. The vibrating sound came soon after and the four stepped inside. They were shivering and covered with snow which each of them brushed off before going to climb the stairs to the second floor. 

Once there, the door was opened by a black haired girl with a piercing sharp gaze. She eyed the new faces with suspicion, her brows knit together in a frown. On closer inspection, she looked very similar to Levi; the same gloomy expression, the same black hair, the glued on frown, their facial structure wasn't all that different either. 

“Schuhe aus,” was her simple order before retreating somewhere inside. 

“Hm?” Hanji looked up at Eren for a translation. 

“Take off your shoes outside. You can leave them outside too, nobody here will steal them.” Eren already took off his muddy shoes and let them stay near the door before walking inside. “Annem! Evdeyim!” The brunet called out and soon was out of sight. 

Hanji was struggling a little with her shoes but eventually got out of them and walked inside as well. She shrugged off her jacket and looked around curiously. Levi followed her inside as well while Armin closed the door as the last one coming in. “You can hang up your jackets here.” He motioned towards the hooks next to the door where other things were already hanging. Coats, scarves, umbrellas, some bags. But there was enough room left. 

Suddenly, there was a high pitched screech coming from inside. “Eren! Yok!” The female voice scolded with the sound of a slap. Eren’s laugh followed soon after. There was still some somewhat aggressive-sounding commotion, though. 

Hanji looked a little worried and glanced at Armin who just smiled. “That was Eren’s mother. He probably just put his cold hands on her. Nothing serious.” He assured them before walking towards the source of noise. Hanji decided to follow him since she didn’t want to just stand around in the corridor and of course pulled Levi along with her. 

The raven wasn’t resisting and followed the others. He was a grown up man and that meant to greet the person this apartment belonged to as he would be staying there for some while. On his way towards what seemed to be the kitchen, Levi glanced at his surroundings. It wasn’t hard to notice that Eren’s family had an oriental background, the decor of their home pretty much gave it away if Eren’s looks and language weren’t already obvious enough for that. 

They arrived in the kitchen and Levi had to blink more than once to make sure he was seeing right. The woman Eren was standing next to looked exactly like him. He was a spitting image of his mother in every way- apart from the eye color. If Eren were to be a girl, that was exactly what he would’ve looked like, that’s how similar the two looked. It was incredible, really. 

“Oh my God, you two are so adorable together!” Hanji gushed and stepped closer to Eren’s mother with an outstretched hand. “I’m Hanji. It’s really nice to meet you.” The smile on her face was big. 

Eren’s mother blinked in confusion and looked up at her son. After he explained it to her, she looked back at Hanji and shook her hand, smiling in return. “Carla. Hoşgeldiniz.” 

“She welcomes you. And you can call her by her name.” Eren said and looked over at Levi next who came over as well to shake Carla’s hand. He was still frowning since that was the expression he had for about 98% of the time, but there was a softness in his eyes. 

“Levi.” He greeted simply, seeing that Carla didn’t understand the English language, so he didn’t bother with a long greeting. The brunette shook his hand as well, the smile on her face not changing despite his expression. She didn’t seem to be bothered by it. 

“Hoşgeldiniz.” She replied warmly. 

Different from Levi and Hanji, Armin greeted Carla with a kiss on each cheek and a short hug. She said something to him afterwards while holding his face and rubbing his hair. They shared a laugh before the olderwoman faced her son again. 

Eren and his mother exchanged a few words and after kissing her cheek, Eren led the others to the room he shared with his brother. He obviously shared it with his brother since there were two beds and many boxing medals, trophies and belts in the room. Levi didn’t even want to count just how many prizes there were, it was actually very impressive. 

Hanji approached some of the prizes in awe while she looked around and read their tags. “Wow, seems like you have more victories than your brother!” The brunette exclaimed in what could only be glee, “I’ve never seen so- Oh my God! Is that you with Muhammad Ali?!” 

Eren chuckled and scratched the back of his neck, “yeah.. heh. We’ve met the Klitschko Brothers, Mike Tyson, Ray Robinson, and uh, a few others. My brother and I had many international fights. We’ve traveled many places already.” He glanced at Levi as he said the next sentence, “chances are high we’ve met before.”

Levi only rolled his eyes in response, not looking as amazed by all that as Hanji. True, not everyone could have what Eren built up with his brother, but that didn’t mean it would make Levi like him more. He still hated that brat, even with his astonishing achievements. 

“That’s so cool!” Hanji raved as she made her way to the other side of the room and kept looking around. She muttered some things to herself every once in a while, about how amazing she found it and how exhilarating it was, how much it fascinated her. It was the first time she met someone who met so many famous people in their life. 

While Hanji was taking a look around, Eren turned up the heater which was right under the window and sat down on the bed afterwards. “Hey,” he spoke, earning a side glance from Levi, “I know it’s been a little, uh, how do you say? Shaky? A shaky way? Humpy? Eh...”

“Bumpy.” Levi offered, very simply. 

“Yeah- it has been a bumpy way for us this far. But I want us to get along because I really like your closeness.” The brunet shot Levi a cheeky grin and stretched out his hand, “let’s be friends.” 

Levi could only raise a brow. Eren wanted to be friends? Hah. How ridiculous. As if he would befriend someone who was only being a pain in his ass all the time. Eren wasn’t the kind of person Levi would like to have as a friend. He already had enough friends anyway and didn’t think Eren, out of all people, would be any sort of exception. Then there was also the possibility that Eren was attracted to men- Levi wanted to stay as far away from that, specifically, as even possible. 

Glancing up into Eren’s bright eyes, Levi stated nonchalantly, “not interested.” He flicked his wrist in a dismissive manner, “bother one of your boxing friends. Or your siblings. Leave me out of it.” 

Levi’s brows raised in momentary surprise when Eren suddenly grabbed his hand and squeezed it. He faced the other with a frown. “I said-“

“I don’t care.” Eren held Levi’s smaller hand with both of his own. “I want us to be friends.”

“Oi. I said no.” Levi attempted to pull his hand back, to no avail. 

“I said yes.” Eren pouted. 

“ _ No! _ ”

“ _ Yes! _ ”

The raven snarled, “fucking- I thought you had problems with your leg not with your ears!”

“My problem is that you don’t want us to be friends for whatever reason!” Eren raised his voice. 

“‘Cause I can’t stand you!”

“We’ll get used to each other!”

“No!” Levi clenched his teeth, “let go of me already!”

“I’m not asking you to marry me!” Eren argued, “all I want is friendship. Is that too much to ask for?” 

Levi groaned. “Hell,  _ yes  _ it is!” 

“So it’s a yes for being friends!” 

“What- are you even listening to me?”

Eren gasped, “unless you  _ want  _ to marry me! Oh, darling, of course I will!”

“Hah?! Not even in your dreams!”

“I decide what I dream!” 

That made Levi cringe. 

“So we either marry now or be friends and marry some time later. Honestly, I’m happy with both.” Eren nodded, as if underlining his statement. “Ohhh, I need to introduce you to my family- you need to learn how to speak German, though. Then we’re gonna choose wedding rings and sui-“

“Oi! Stop this bullshit already!” Levi was so exasperated. “You’re being weird!”

“Are we gonna be friends then?”

“No!” Levi insisted. 

“Then I’m not stopping.” 

Levi was fueled with anger and wasn’t in the mood for Eren’s games at all. And that brat was so stubborn too! How annoying! Why did he agree to come over again?

“Enough!” The raven hissed through his teeth, glaring at Eren who was still holding his hand. “I’ve got enough of this bullshit. You’re not a four-years-old, stop acting like one.” 

There was a short silence where the two stared at each other until Eren opened his mouth to ask, “...so we’re friends?” 

Levi’s eye was twitching with irritation. “If I say yes will that shut you up?”

“Of course.” Eren hummed like the good boy he was. 

“Tch.” Narrowing his eyes, Levi decided to give in so this awkward... something... would finally stop. “Fine.” 

The brunet gasped again, “for real?! You guys heard him, right?” His gaze moved over to Armin and Hanji who both nodded. Hanji gave them a big thumbs up and a wink. Yeah, Levi would wipe that grin off her face soon enough. 

“There’s no going back anymore!” Eren exclaimed as his arms wrapped around the shorter male and squeezed him close for a hug. 

“Agh-!” The breath was knocked out of Levi’s lungs, so he pushed their chests apart as much as he could to at least breathe properly. There wasn’t much he could do about being hugged with such strength by such a big person. 

Oh God. What did he let himself into? Levi already deeply regretted agreeing to this friendship thing with Eren.

**Author's Note:**

> Feedback and/or comments are very much appreciated! Let me know what you think ^^;
> 
> [My Tumblr](www.mimirexx.tumblr.com)


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